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Text: These factors are detailed in the company's financial reports.
You should also note that we will be discussing our consolidated results using core performance measures, unless we specifically indicate our comments relate to GAAP data.
Our core performance measures are non-GAAP measures used by management to analyze the business.
For the first quarter, the largest difference between our GAAP and core results stemmed from noncash mark-to-market gains associated with the company's currency hedging contracts.
With respect to mark-to-market adjustments, GAAP accounting requires earnings translation hedge contracts and foreign debt settling in future periods to be mark-to-market and recorded at current value at the end of each quarter even though those contracts will not be settled in the current quarter.
For us, this increased GAAP earnings in Q1 by $308 million.
To be clear, this mark-to-market accounting has no impact on our cash flow.
Our currency hedges provide us -- protect us economically from foreign exchange rate fluctuations and provide higher certainty for our earnings and cash flow, our ability to invest for growth and our future shareholder distributions.
Our non-GAAP or core results provide additional transparency into operations by using a constant currency rate aligned with the economics of our underlying transactions.
We're very pleased with our hedging program and the economic certainty it provides.
We received $1.7 billion in cash under our hedge contracts since their inception more than five years ago.
A reconciliation of core results to the comparable GAAP value can be found in the investor relations section of our website at corning.com.
You may also access core results on our website with downloadable financials in the interactive analyst segment.
We encourage you to follow along.
They're also available on our website for downloading.
Today, we reported a strong start to what we expect to be an outstanding year.
For the first quarter, we grew sales 29% year over year to $3.3 billion.
We grew earnings per share by 125% to $0.45.
Free cash flow of $372 million builds on the momentum we established in the second half of 2020.
All five of our segments delivered double-digit sales and net income growth year over year, with sales growth rates ranging from 15% for display to 38% for environmental.
But last year was an easy compare.
So I think it's worth noting that total company sales are up 14% since the first quarter of 2019.
No question, we're in a strong position.
I'll frame my remarks around three points.
First, invention is fundamental to our long-term strategy.
Through our relentless commitment to R&D, we developed category-defining products that transform industries and enhance lives.
Second, as we partner closely with our customers to move their industries forward, we unlock new ways to integrate more Corning content into their ecosystems.
This is a powerful growth mechanism.
And finally, we continue to build a stronger, more resilient company, one that is committed to rewarding shareholders while supporting our customers, our people and our communities.
Now let me expand on my first point.
We're living in a world that Corning anticipated exactly a decade ago in our video, A Day Made of Glass.
It's a world where technology underpins every facet of human life; a world of communication and connection, where massive bandwidth facilitates real-time information and on-demand connections and people stay connected through a virtual environment that is literally at their fingertips.
Let's think about what it means as displays and touchscreen devices make their way to the very center of daily life.
The demands we're putting on today's screens and the expectations we have for tomorrow's imply a very specific set of properties.
The requirements for precision glass and ceramics become more and more exacting.
We need a material that is strong, yet thin and lightweight, flexible and conformable, durable, damage-resistant and impermeable, stable enough to withstand hostile weather, extreme temperatures and cleaning agents.
It needs to be touch-friendly and look elegant.
It must scale for very large applications and yet be useful in the palm of your hand or on your wrist.
The material must also be operable with a world of technical capabilities that lie just below the surface, enabling complex electronic circuits and nano scale structure.
And it must be mindful of the environment.
When it comes to the critical components that enable high-technology systems in multiple markets that we serve, the bar just keeps getting higher.
This leads to a world where precision glass and ceramics win.
And we have been winning.
When we examine the growth in all our business today, we see key trends converging around our capabilities at a very exciting pace.
In short, we're vital to progress.
We succeed through sustained investments in R&D and years of material science and process engineering knowledge.
Everything begins with our cohesive portfolio.
Corning is one of the world's most proficient innovators in materials science.
We combine our unparalleled expertise in glass science, ceramic science and optical physics with our proprietary manufacturing and engineering platforms to develop category-defining products that transform industries and enhance lives.
Today, our inventions clean the air we all breathe, connect people to information and each other, provide the window through which we access information and entertainment.
And they help facilitate the discovery and delivery of new medicines.
And we're building in each of these areas.
We're helping our customers move toward a world with nearly infinite and ubiquitous bandwidth; with large lifelike displays, where cars are cleaner, autonomous and connected; where medicines are individualized, effective and safe; and where you can do more right from your mobile device, protected by cover materials that can withstand even greater reviews.
That leads me to my second point.
As we work closely with our customers to advance these visions, we find ways to solve their toughest technology challenges.
Our probability of success increases as we apply more of our world-class capabilities, and our cost of innovation declines as we reapply talent and repurpose our existing assets.
As we apply our focused portfolio, we invent solutions that add even more value to our customers' offerings, and this provides a powerful growth mechanism.
We aren't exclusively relying on people just buying more stuff.
We're putting more Corning into the products that people are already buying.
Now through that lens, let's look at our progress across our market access platforms.
In mobile consumer electronics, we continue to help transform the way people interact with and use their devices.
And we are capturing significant growth by increasing the value we offer on each of those devices.
As we advance state-of-the-art for cover materials, we drive sustained outperformance across up and down markets.
We've grown specialty sales every year from 2016 to today despite smartphone unit sales being roughly flat or down each year.
Over that five-year period, we've added more than $750 million in sales on a base of more than $1 billion.
Fast Company recently recognized our achievements in this space.
Noting both Ceramic Shield and Gorilla Glass Victus, the magazine named Corning, The Most Innovative Company in Consumer Electronics for 2021.
We see a similar growth story playing out in automotive since 2017, the peak year for car sales.
Our auto sales are up more than 40%, while global car sales are down 20%.
We're helping customers navigate an industry that is expected to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the past 50.
And as we do, we're working to capture and expand $100 per car content opportunity across emissions, auto glass solutions and other technical glass products, including our patented 3D ColdForm technology.
We were thrilled to see the world premier event for the all-electric EQS for Mercedes.
Its hyper screen features a Gorilla Glass cover almost five-feet wide.
We've also launched a new generation of GPS.
They're helping vehicles, including hybrids, achieve even lower levels of fine particulate emissions.
And they're helping us exceed a $500 million GPF business ahead of our original time frame.
In life sciences, we are delivering growth on two fronts.
First, demand is growing based on COVID-19 vaccines and diagnostics.
Second, we're becoming increasingly relevant as we help the industry move toward cell- and gene-based therapies, and that shift translates into more of our content per drug sold.
Looking longer term, we're making significant strides toward building a valor glass franchise, addressing a multibillion-dollar content opportunity in pharmaceutical packaging markets.
We doubled valor vial production in Quarter 1 versus Quarter 4.
And to date, the company has shipped enough valor vials for hundreds of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
Corning also expanded its agreement with the U.S. government to boost capacity for vials to $261 million, a $57 million increase from our initial June 2020 agreement.
We're leveraging our competitive advantages to deliver stable returns.
I'm pleased to note that in Quarter 1, we experienced the most favorable first-quarter pricing environment in more than a decade.
And we announced a moderate increase to our display glass substrate prices for the second quarter.
Stepping back, we are the lowest-cost producer of display glass, which makes us significantly more profitable than our competitors.
Our superior products, innovation capabilities and deep customer relationships enable us to maintain our leadership position.
And our flexible fusion manufacturing platform allows us to match operating capacity with demand.
Meanwhile, the emergence of Gen 10.5 has given us a unique opportunity.
Demand for large-sized TVs continues to grow.
75-inch sets were up more than 60% last year.
These TVs are most efficiently made on the largest fabs, and Corning is well-positioned to drive more content into the market in 2021 with its Gen 10.5 plants in China.
Finally, let's look at optical.
I'm energized by the outlook for this business.
We gauge the market by three indicators.
First is network need, and we can all see that demand on the network is only increasing.
Second is customer statements.
Broadly, network operators are making encouraging announcements on capital investment for 5G and hyperscale data center deployments.
And there's also good news on fiber to the home.
AT&T's CEO, John Stankey recently said that fiber underpins the connectivity we deliver, serving both wired and wireless.
His company announced plans to increase its fiber-to-the-home footprint by an additional 3 million customer locations across more than 90 metro areas in 2021.
Verizon CFO Matt Ellis said the fiber serves as the critical backbone to our 5G deployment.
Our commitments with our vendor partners, such as Samsung, Nokia, Ericsson, and Corning, represent key strategic agreements to drive innovation in 5G.
And finally, the third indicator that we watch is our order book.
We're seeing orders and sales increase.
And we're also seeing multiple governments starting to shape policy that asserts broadband is a basic right.
They're developing action plans to take optical solutions to many more homes.
The White House is calling for more than $120 billion to bring high-speed Internet to every American.
Just looking at the two biggest efforts, the Rural Opportunity Development Fund and the President's Infrastructure Plan, we see a multibillion-dollar opportunity for Corning.
launched its GBP 5 billion Project Gigabit.
The plan is to bring next-generation broadband to more than 1 million hard-to-reach homes and businesses.
And the European Commission is calling for EUR 135 billion to support the rollout of rapid broadband services to all regions and households starting in 2021.
In addition, we remain the unquestioned technology and market leader.
We consistently create new products and extend our lead by delivering solutions that help our customers realize their network visions faster, better and cheaper.
Simultaneously, we're driving productivity improvements to increase capacity and lower our cost.
In total, we're feeling very good about optical.
So I've talked about how we invest to create and make innovations that solve tough challenges, deliver for our customers and grow.
Now I want to add on my final point.
As we effectively build our strength as a company, we will continue to reward our shareholders.
The strength of our businesses results in significant cash generation.
Our first priority is to invest for growth.
And we are committed to return excess cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and opportunistic buybacks.
In the first quarter, we announced a 9% increase to our dividend.
And earlier this month, we seized a great opportunity to resume share buybacks.
Through our recent transaction with Samsung display, we repurchased 4% of our outstanding shares.
This is a great deal for our shareholders, and it's great news for Corning that Samsung retained a 9% long-term ownership stake in the company.
We see their investment as validation of Corning's innovation road map and the value of our capabilities.
As we look ahead, this only adds to our confidence.
Shifting to a broader view of our stakeholder base, we are committed to sharing resources and leadership on a range of important issues.
We continue to support vital human services and emergency relief in our communities around the world.
Our Office of Racial Equality & Social Unity has made significant strides.
In North Carolina, we've established a five-year partnership with N.C. A&T, the largest historically black university in the United States to provide scholarships through 2026.
The funding focuses on enhancing STEM education, helping students become community classroom teachers and boosting the number of graduates in other fields critical to the nation's workforce.
In New York, we're providing hands-on support on police reform.
We're also energized around our sustainability efforts.
EPA has once again named Corning an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year.
Recently, Verizon publicly recognized our sustainable practices.
And I am pleased to announce that we'll publish our first sustainability report in the coming months.
On all dimensions, Corning is operating exceptionally well, and our capabilities are vital to progress on multiple fronts.
We're succeeding at building a stronger, more resilient company.
And I look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year.
I am pleased to reiterate that Corning had another excellent quarter.
We closed 2020 with strong momentum and built on that momentum by delivering sales, earnings per share and cash flow above our expectations.
We are off to a great start, and we expect that strong demand and positive momentum to continue throughout the year.
Now let me walk you through our first-quarter performance.
Sales were $3.3 billion, which translates to a year-over-year increase of 29%.
We posted double-digit sales and net income growth year over year across all of our segments.
Environmental technologies and specialty materials delivered particularly strong year-over-year growth, posting sales increases of 38% and 28%, respectively, and net income gains of 111% and 78%, respectively.
Optical communications posted its second quarter of year-over-year growth, and we expect to see that trend continue.
And notably, display experienced the most favorable first-quarter pricing environment we've seen in more than a decade.
During the quarter, multiple events disrupted global supply chains.
Like many other companies, we experienced elevated freight and logistics costs across our businesses, and we expedited shipments to meet our customers' expanding demand.
This ultimately reduced profits by approximately $50 million.
As a result, our margins were below normalized levels.
This was most pronounced in our environmental technologies, optical communications and display businesses.
We will continue to do what it takes to deliver for our customers.
But we'll also take steps to mitigate these costs, and we expect to see them begin to decline in the second quarter and normalize longer term.
Operating margin was 17.1%.
That's an improvement of 730 basis points on a year-over-year basis.
We grew operating income 125% year over year.
EPS came in at $0.45, which is more than double year over year.
Free cash flow of $372 million was up $691 million versus first-quarter 2020, and it equates to 39% of our 2020 total.
This adds to our confidence that we will generate significantly more free cash flow than 2020.
So even with the disruptions from the Suez to storms, to continued COVID challenges, it was a very strong quarter.
Now let's take a closer look at the performance of each of our businesses.
In display technologies, first-quarter sales were $863 million, up 3% sequentially and up 15% year over year.
Net income was $213 million, up 40% year over year.
Now net income declined slightly sequentially because of the timing and flows of incentives associated with expansions in China.
Corning's volume grew by a low single-digit percentage sequentially, and Q1 sequential prices remain consistent with Q4 levels.
Now we continue to see strong in-market demand.
Retail demand for large-sized TVs and IT products, including notebook PCs, are both on track for another year of double-digit growth.
As a reminder, growth in large-sized TVs is the most important driver for us as we are well-positioned to capture that growth with Gen 10.5, which is the most efficient gen size for large TV manufacturing.
Panel makers are running at high utilizations, and glass demand is robust.
And we continue to expect the glass market to grow by a mid-single-digit percentage in 2021.
Against this backdrop, issues at our competitors have created glass shortages in an already tight supply environment.
Our primary operational focus is to supply our customers' demand.
Corning experienced the most favorable first-quarter glass pricing environment in more than a decade.
And we have increased cost in logistics, energy, raw materials and other operational expenses.
As a result, we are moderately increasing glass prices in the second quarter.
We believe the pricing environment will remain favorable going forward.
Three factors will continue to drive this.
First, we expect glass supply to remain short to tight in the upcoming quarters.
Second, our competitors continue to face profitability challenges at current pricing levels.
And third, display glass manufacturing requires periodic investments in existing capacity to maintain operations.
Looking ahead, we expect that glass supply will continue to be short to tight, and we will continue to partner with our customers to maximize our glass supply.
In optical communications, first-quarter sales were $937 million, up 18% year over year.
Sales were up in both enterprise and carrier networks, driven by the accelerated pace of data center builds and increased capital spending on network capacity expansion and fiber-to-the-home projects.
Net income was $111 million, up 283%.
The improvement was driven by incremental volume and strong cost performance.
There are some extremely encouraging announcements coming from leading network operators, as well as governments around the world that point to the start of a strong investment phase across the industry.
Clearly, there is a lot of excitement surrounding network deployment and optical fiber's role in delivering both basic and next-generation services to end customers.
We are well-positioned to capture a significant amount of that upside in the market.
Corning is the industry leader and the only large-scale end-to-end manufacturer of optical solutions, which allows us to innovate on important dimensions not available to competitors.
This puts us squarely at the center of growth trajectories in fiber to the home, 5G and hyperscale data centers.
We've returned to growth in optical communications, and we remain confident that we will continue to grow.
In environmental technologies, first-quarter sales were $441 million, up 38% year over year.
Net income was $74 million, up 111% year over year.
Diesel sales grew 44% year over year, driven by customers continuing to adopt more advanced after-treatment in China and by a stronger-than-expected North America heavy-duty truck market.
Automotive sales were up 34% year over year as the global auto market improved and GPF adoption continued in Europe and China.
And we are well on our way and ahead of our original time frame to build a $500 million gas particulate filter business.
European regulations are in full effect, and adoption in China continues as China's 6a implementation of the regulations began during the first quarter.
In specialty materials, first-quarter sales of $451 million were up 28% year over year due to strong demand for premium cover materials, strength in the IT market and demand for semiconductor-related optical glasses.
Net income was $91 million, up 78% from 2020 as a result of higher sales volumes and lower manufacturing costs.
Connectivity and computation continues to grow in importance, creating strength and resilience in the smartphone, IT and semiconductor markets.
And we outperformed that strong market.
Our premium glasses and surfaces supported new phones and IT launches, including more than 25 smartphones and 12 laptops and tablets featuring Gorilla Glass.
And we are capturing high demand for our industry-leading advanced optics materials, which are essential for deep and extreme ultraviolet or EUV lithography.
In 2020, EUV systems accounted for more than 30% of all semiconductor lithography equipment expenditures.
Our customers believe these systems will grow significantly over the next five years.
So we see growth for our semiconductor-related materials well beyond resolution of the current and well-publicized capacity tightness.
Life sciences first-quarter sales were $300 million, up 16% year over year and 9% sequentially, driven by continued strong demand for diagnostics, growth in bioproduction and recovery in lab research markets.
Net income was $48 million, up 26% year over year and 14% sequentially, driven by the higher sales and solid operating performance.
Now I'd like to turn to our commitment to financial stewardship and capital allocation.
Our fundamental approach remains the same.
We will continue to focus our portfolio and utilize our financial strength.
We generate very strong operating cash flow, and we expect to continue going forward.
We will continue to use our cash to grow, extend our leadership and reward shareholders.
Our first priority for our use of cash is to invest in our growth and extend our leadership.
We do this through RD&E investments, capital spending and strategic M&A.
Our next priority is to return excess cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and opportunistic share repurchases.
In February, we announced a 9% increase to our quarterly dividend.
In April, share -- we resumed share buybacks by repurchasing 4% of our outstanding common shares from Samsung display.
We are pleased that Samsung will remain a significant shareholder.
Their ownership demonstrates confidence in the value of Corning's capabilities, our ongoing technology collaborations and our combined innovation leadership.
The repurchases will be immediately accretive to earnings per share starting in Q2.
We will remain opportunistic during the year surrounding additional share repurchases.
In closing, we had an excellent quarter relative to both 2020 and to 2019.
Demand is high across our businesses.
Our more Corning strategy is working, and we are operating very well with all segments growing year over year.
We are growing our top and bottom line and generating strong free cash flow.
For the second quarter, we expect core sales of $3.3 billion to $3.5 billion and earnings per share of $0.49 to $0.53.
And for the rest of the year, we expect that momentum to continue.
I look forward to sharing our progress with you as the year goes on.
With that, let's move to Q&A.
Operator, we're ready for the first question.

user
sees q2 core earnings per share $0.49 to $0.53.
q1 core earnings per share $0.45.
sees q2 core sales $3.3 billion to $3.5 billion.
display technologies, first-quarter sales were $863 million, up 3% sequentially and 15% year over year.
optical communications, first-quarter sales were $937 million, up 18% year over year.
anticipates strong demand and positive momentum across its businesses to continue throughout 2021.
corning - continuing to innovate to reduce cost and speed deployment of 5g, hyperscale data centers, and fiber-to-home.
expects freight & logistics costs will normalize longer term and will begin to decline in q2 as co takes mitigating actions.

assistant