Corning Inc (GLW)

Their big business is glass for television sets, phones and they still make fibre-optic cable. Incredibly cheap. Never recovered from the DOT COM period although amazingly transitioned into high end glass which is definitely a growth business as screens get larger and larger and the world shifts to smart phones. Margins are improving. This will be a double digits earnings story for the next few years.

(A Top Pick April 12/12. Up 3.58%.) Average TV in houses is growing larger. Introducing a new black screen technology, which used to be used by fighter pilots. Last year they acquired a big laboratory asset which will be accretive to earnings. Raised its dividend 3 times in the last 18 months. Has also been buying back shares.

They come out with great products but unfortunately the products have tended to become commoditized. As much as they can make hay on the volume side, they are losing on the pricing side so it is a little difficult to get traction.

Gorilla glass is a very profitable product for them. They are dominant in glass manufacturing. The issue for them is the weakening yen, which helps their competitors. This industry is difficult and he can find better growth elsewhere.

(A Top Pick March 20/12. Down 5.77%.) The areas of glass that they are most leveraged to are fibre optics and LCD TVs. He expects the LCD business to start to pick up.

This whole industry is becoming commoditized so prices are dropping at a fairly fast clip even though volumes are rising. Have great technologies including Gorrilla glass and Willow glass. Great products, but they don’t have the pricing power.

Stock is a bit of a conundrum. He struggles to find deep value stocks and, invariably, they are small to midcap with a lot of market disdain. This one is a large cap with an $18 billion market cap. Has free cash flow of over $500 million and trades well below tangible book. Dividend of 2.86%.

(A Top Pick March 1/12. Down 0.55%.) Gorilla glass sold $1 billion last year and they are now looking for industrial applications such as sun roofs in cars. Fibre to the home is being driven on the back of much more data been pushed through the system. Its 3 big engines of growth are all structured through joint ventures. As income goes through the joint ventures, they only own 49% of them so volatility will be lower than you see with tech companies. Has a progressive dividend and they bought back $1.5 billion of stock.

Building a bit of a base. He favours this one.

(Top Pick Apr 12/12, Down 4.87%)

They continue to do well in terms of usage, but they suffer from commoditization of their product. He has stayed clear. They will be a leader in their industry but how profitable?

(Top Pick Mar 1/12, Down 11.80%) There was an over-supply in the glass business. Q1 tends to run for Tech. It looks like capacity has been taken out of the system and we are seeing stability in the glass pricing. As the US starts to recover you will start to get TV purchasing.

Make the glass for big TVs. There has been an oversupply in the industry. This is not a name she is interested in. Anyone who wants a flat panel TV has one and the kids only watch on their tablet, handheld or laptop.

Made a bottom in the end of 2011 and has made a lower bottom which is not good. If it could get above around $15, it would probably do wonders for the stock.

(A Top Pick Oct 11/11. Down 0.11%.)