Howard Capital Management Inc. Acquires 243 Shares of Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW)

Howard Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) by 5.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,736 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 243 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Corning were worth $225,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. TCW Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Corning by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,136 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $529,000 after buying an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp grew its stake in shares of Corning by 19.3% during the fourth quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 12,589 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $598,000 after buying an additional 2,037 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Corning by 26.3% during the fourth quarter. Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. now owns 8,177 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $389,000 after buying an additional 1,702 shares during the last quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators grew its stake in shares of Corning by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 6,226 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $296,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in shares of Corning by 66.7% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 611,982 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,081,000 after buying an additional 244,788 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on GLW shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Corning from $39.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. HSBC raised Corning from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $51.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Corning from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $58.00 price objective (up previously from $51.00) on shares of Corning in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Corning from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.00.

Corning Stock Down 2.1 %

Corning stock opened at $49.73 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $50.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $46.93. 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 firm has a market cap of $42.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 85.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.03. Corning Incorporated has a twelve month low of $30.72 and a twelve month high of $55.33.

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

Corning Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. Corning’s dividend payout ratio is presently 193.10%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Michael Alan Bell sold 2,209 shares of the 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Eric S. Musser sold 30,000 shares of the 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 152,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,940,852.48. This represents a 16.40 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.