CORNING, N.Y. (WENY) -- Corning Inc. released its fourth quarter and year end financial results on Wednesday, January 29th, marking what the company called a successful year. According to Corning, the company's fourth quarter exceeding previous predictions. 

“We had another outstanding quarter. We grew core sales 18 percent year over year to $3.9 billion and grew core EPS 46 percent to $0.57 while expanding core operating margin by 220 basis points to 18.5 percent. We also expanded core ROIC 390 basis points to 12.7 percent. Additionally, we closed out a strong year of free cash flow generation, delivering $1.25 billion for 2024, up 42 percent,” said Wendell P. Weeks, chairman and chief executive officer for Corning Inc. in a prepared statement. 

One of the main reasons the company was able to do so well in the fourth quarter is because of the rapid development of the Gen AI. Beyond Gen AI, the company says it also found success last year in display technologies. 

“We outperformed in the fourth quarter, driven by strong adoption of our new products for Gen AI, which drove sales growth of 93% year over year in the Enterprise portion of Optical Communications. We also successfully implemented double-digit price increases in Display Technologies to ensure we can maintain stable U.S. dollar net income in a weaker yen environment, and we expect to deliver segment net income of $900 million to $950 million in 2025 and to maintain net income margin of 25,” said Ed Schlesinger, executive vice president and chief financial officer, in a prepared statement.

Looking forward, the company says that it expects more of the same in 2025. Predictions for the first quarter of 2025 include expectations that core sales to grow 10 percent year over year to approximately $3.6 billion, with core EPS growing approximately 30 percent to a range between $0.48 to $0.52.

“Clearly, we’re off to a terrific start on our high-confidence ‘Springboard’ plan to add more than $3 billion in annualized sales, and to achieve operating margin of 20%, by the end of 2026. Based on our outperformance, we plan to upgrade this high-confidence plan at our investor event in March. We’re capturing significant sales growth, with powerful incremental profit and cash flow, as upward cyclical and secular trends drive demand for our products and capabilities," said Weeks.

Also on tap for 2025, On March 18 in New York City, Corning management is set to give an upgrade to its high-confidence “Springboard” plan to add more than $3 billion in annualized sales.