Davis R M Inc. Acquires 1,302 Shares of Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW)

Davis R M Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) by 11.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 13,057 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 1,302 shares during the quarter. Davis R M Inc.’s holdings in Corning were worth $620,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GLW. Amundi raised its position in shares of Corning by 139.0% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 3,900,808 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $186,186,000 after buying an additional 2,268,436 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Corning during the fourth quarter worth approximately $92,522,000. FMR LLC raised its position in Corning by 52.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,723,044 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $168,095,000 after purchasing an additional 1,285,836 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Corning by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,983,090 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,534,337,000 after purchasing an additional 1,242,718 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Corning by 218.5% in the 4th quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. now owns 1,009,208 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $47,958,000 after purchasing an additional 692,366 shares during the period. 69.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Corning from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Corning from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. HSBC raised shares of Corning from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $51.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Corning from $39.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Corning from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Corning has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.00.

Insider Activity

In other Corning news, SVP Michael Alan Bell sold 2,209 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.87, for a total transaction of $110,162.83. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Eric S. Musser sold 30,000 shares of Corning stock in a transaction on Friday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.92, for a total value of $1,557,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 152,944 shares in the company, valued at $7,940,852.48. This represents a 16.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Corning Trading Down 0.2 %

GLW opened at $44.91 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $49.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $47.42. The company has a market capitalization of $38.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 77.44, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.03. Corning Incorporated has a 52 week low of $30.72 and a 52 week high of $55.33.

Corning (NYSE:GLW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electronics maker reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.01. Corning had a return on equity of 15.10% and a net margin of 3.86%. Analysts forecast that Corning Incorporated will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Corning Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.49%. Corning’s payout ratio is presently 193.10%.

Corning Company Profile

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.