Corning Talking Up LCD Business (GLW)

Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW) President and Chief Operating Officer Peter F. Volanakiswill address the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco today.  The company is updating its guidance and is giving some of its targets for 2009.  Surprisingly enough, it isn’t all that bad when you consider the reports  given by others in recent weeks.

The company has said  LCD television retail sales and panel makers are still encouraging.  Retail sales of LCD TVs have continued to be strong, panel inventories remain healthy, and panel prices are stabilizing.

The company will cite NPD data on January unit sales of LCD TVs  which showed gains of  35% over 2008, with unit sales up 109% in China and up 17% in Japan.  U.S.  sales in the first two weeks of February gained 40 percent year-over-year  and the company is forecasting worldwide LCD TV unit sales to increase by 9% this year.

For 19-inch and 32-inch TV’s, the company says that panel prices have increased this month, and it is seeing an increase in Taiwanese and Korean panel maker utilization rates from January to February.  More importantly, the president is noting that there could be less pricing pressure on suppliers.   They are also confident that the display supply chain “will stop contracting at the end of the first quarter. ”

While this may not be total company guidance, the president is reiterating that Corning’s 2009 revenue forecasts of $5 billion requires an increase in LCD panel sales in the second half of this year.  It may be too soon to declare that a victory, but what this sounds like it that company is issuing “reiterated guidance, with caveats.”  Analysts, who have taken down forecasts, expect revenue this year of  $4.48 billion in revenues.

So far, shares are still down almost 1% at $10.45 this morning as there is weakness in the market across the board.  Its 52-week trading range is $7.36 to $28.07.

Jon C. Ogg