Corning Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:GLW)

Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Traders acquired 92,077 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 580% compared to the typical daily volume of 13,541 call options.

Institutional Trading of Corning

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Corning by 35.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,200,828 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $566,941,000 after purchasing an additional 4,464,893 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Corning by 4.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,342,949 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $401,826,000 after acquiring an additional 426,864 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Corning by 0.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,853,076 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $219,116,000 after acquiring an additional 38,168 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Corning by 52.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,723,044 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $168,095,000 after acquiring an additional 1,285,836 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its stake in Corning by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 2,415,500 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $109,060,000 after purchasing an additional 14,900 shares in the last quarter. 69.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Corning Price Performance

GLW stock traded down $0.11 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $46.94. The company had a trading volume of 282,535 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,664,217. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Corning has a 1 year low of $27.57 and a 1 year high of $51.03. The company has a market capitalization of $40.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 276.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $45.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.33.

Corning (NYSE:GLW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The electronics maker reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.01. Corning had a net margin of 1.24% and a return on equity of 13.45%. The company had revenue of $3.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Corning will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Corning Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.39%. Corning’s payout ratio is 658.82%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GLW has been the topic of a number of research reports. Mizuho raised shares of Corning from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price target (up previously from $51.00) on shares of Corning in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $39.00 target price on shares of Corning in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Corning from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Corning from $40.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.08.

About Corning

Corning Incorporated engages in the display technologies, optical communications, environmental technologies, specialty materials, and life sciences businesses in the United States and internationally. The company's Display Technologies segment offers glass substrates for flat panel displays, including liquid crystal displays and organic light-emitting diodes that are used in televisions, notebook computers, desktop monitors, tablets, and handheld devices.