Corning Q4 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
January 26, 2022

There are 15 speakers on the call.

Operator

Welcome to the Corning Incorporated Quarter 4 twenty twenty one Earnings Call. It is my pleasure to introduce you, Ann Nicholson, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Shannon. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Corning's quarter 4 2021 earnings call. With me today are Wendell Weeks, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tony Tripeny, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Evenson, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer and Ed Slessinger, currently serving as Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller. I'd like to remind you that today's remarks contain forward looking statements that follow within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Speaker 1

These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. These factors are detailed in the company's financial reports. You should also note that we'll be discussing our consolidated results using core performance measures, Unless we specifically indicate our comments related to GAAP data. Our core performance measures are non GAAP measures used by management to analyze the business. For the Q4, the largest differences between our GAAP and core results stem from non cash mark to market gains associated with the company's currency hedging contracts And non cash impairment charges.

Speaker 1

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 Q4 by $86,000,000 To be clear, This mark to market accounting has no impact on our cash flow. Our currency hedges 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 constant currency rates aligned with the economics of our underlying transactions. We're very pleased with our hedging program and the economic certainty it provides.

Speaker 1

We've received more than $1,800,000,000 in cash under our hedge contracts of our website at corning.com. You may also access core results on our website with downloadable financials in the interactive analyst center. Supporting slides are being shown live on our webcast. We encourage you to follow along. They're also available on our website for downloading.

Speaker 1

And now I'll turn the call over to Wendell.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Anne, and good morning, everyone. Today, we reported 4th quarter and full year 2021 results. We delivered another strong quarter of year over year For the Q4, sales were $3,700,000,000 up 12% year over year. We generated EPS of $0.54 and free cash flow of $425,000,000 For the full year, sales were $14,100,000,000 up 23% year over year. We generated EPS of $2.07 up 49% year over year and we nearly doubled free cash flow.

Speaker 2

In addition, we achieved double digit ROIC. We expanded our operating margin by 2.30 basis points. We increased our dividend By 9%, and we reduced our outstanding shares by 5%

Operator

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Speaker 2

We are performing well in a challenging environment, and we have momentum entering the year. Now all of that said, our gross margin is simply not where it should be. As we said last quarter, throughout the pandemic, we have prioritized protecting our people and delivering for our customers in a complex inflationary environment, and it has come at a cost. Over the last several months, we have negotiated with customers to increase prices In our long term contracts to more appropriately share the increased cost we are experiencing. We are focused on expanding our gross margin and expect improvement in 2022 Last quarter, we also discussed our expectations for our display business.

Speaker 2

I am pleased to report We had another strong quarter of display revenues and profits in quarter 4. Display glass pricing is expected to be flat sequentially in the Q1. The supply demand balance for display glass is tight. In 2022, We expect overall glass supply to remain tight to balanced and the pricing environment to remain favorable. This morning, you'll hear more on these and other priorities for 2022.

Speaker 2

I'll focus on how we intend to maintain our growth and positive momentum. Then Tony and Ed will discuss our results As well as our plan to enhance our profitability and overall financial strength. So let's dive in. We've been delivering consistent growth. Sales have been up for 6 quarters in a row.

Speaker 2

Since 2019, we've grown sales by 21% and EPS by 18% With more balanced and consistent contributions across our businesses, Everything begins with our cohesive portfolio. We're the world leader in glass science, ceramic science and optical physics along with Our 4 proprietary manufacturing and engineering platforms. We focus our strategy on capturing synergies among these capabilities and applying them to create disruptive innovations. Across Multiple industries, we work closely with many of the most influential and successful companies to bring our world leading capabilities to bear on their toughest challenges. In the process, We help move the world forward.

Speaker 2

As we partner with our customers to advance their visions, Our probability of success increases as we combine our capabilities, reapply our talent And repurpose existing assets. This provides a powerful value creation lever By unlocking new ways to integrate more of our content into our customers' ecosystems. We aren't exclusively relying on people buying more stuff. We're driving more Corning content into the products they're already buying. Our progress in 2021 illustrates the effectiveness of our approach, And it gives us confidence that we're building on a strong foundation for additional growth in 2022.

Speaker 2

In Optical Communications, we've returned to growth with sales up 22% in 2021 And we expect strong growth to continue. Operators are expanding network capacity, capability and access. The pace of data center construction is accelerating as more applications move to the cloud and data creation continues to soar. And fiber rich wireless deployments are underway. Meanwhile, Governments around the world are initiating plans to extend the reach of broadband to more people in more places As network access is increasingly viewed as a human right.

Speaker 2

For example, The recently passed U. S. Infrastructure bill allocates $65,000,000,000 in new spending for broadband infrastructure, including $42,000,000,000 for new network builds. Our customers are stating their preferences For fiber to build these networks. As the only large scale end to end manufacturer of optical solutions, Corning plays a vital role in driving the continued expansion of connectivity.

Speaker 2

We're working even more closely with industry players at the regional and national levels, including expanding our long time collaboration with AT and T. Project momentum is strong across our customer base. And as U. S. Infrastructure plans roll out, It could add as much as $1,000,000,000 a year to the market for 4 years, starting as early as 2023.

Speaker 2

We believe private carrier and public infrastructure investments will push the market into double digit growth Over the next few years. In life sciences, we're delivering growth on multiple fronts With sales up 24% in 2021. We're seeing ongoing demand in support of a global pandemic response. Our inventions are also helping the industry advance the transition to cell and gene based therapies. And we're making progress After introducing Valor Glass vials in 2017, we recently introduced Velocity vials.

Speaker 2

These vials are helping industry leading drug makers increase efficiency and throughput to drive faster manufacturing of vaccines to help meet global demand. Velocity joins Valor And our glass tubing business as we build a comprehensive end to end pharmaceutical packaging portfolio. In fact, our portfolio has enabled the delivery of nearly 5 Earlier this week, West Pharmaceutical Services, a global leader in injectable drug administration, Announced a long term supply agreement and technology investment in Corning to enhance injectable drug packaging systems. In automotive, 2021 sales in our Environmental Technologies segment Increased 16% to reach an all time high, dollars 1,600,000,000 Despite weakness in the automotive market related to chip shortages. We're pursuing $100 per car content opportunity driven by trends that are reshaping the auto industry and reimagining the car.

Speaker 2

We delivered multiple proof points in 2021. Daimler launched The hyperscreen dashboard display in the Mercedes Benz EQS. The display features a Gorilla Glass cover nearly 5 feet wide. Building on this momentum, we entered a new automotive product category with our curved mirror solutions. This innovation is enabling the augmented reality head up display in Hyundai's electric crossover, The IONIQ 5.

Speaker 2

And Jeep announced a product that brings our tough technical glass into their iconic vehicles. The new Jeep Performance Parts Windshield featuring Gorilla Glass is now a factory installed option on the Wrangler I'm glad to hear. Additionally, tighter emissions regulations Continue to provide a strong content opportunity for our environmental solutions. Our newest generation of gasoline particulate filters Help vehicles, including hybrids, achieve even lower levels of fine particulate tailpipe emissions. The contributions of our GPF business provide a strong illustration of our more Corning strategy in action.

Speaker 2

Since 2017, Environmental Technology sales have increased more than 40% While global car sales have decreased by 20%. Let's turn to Mobile Consumer Electronics, where 2021 sales increased 7% And we surpassed the $2,000,000,000 in sales for the first time. Since 2016, Specialty Materials has added nearly $900,000,000 on a base Of $1,100,000,000 in a smartphone market that has been flat to down. As we help our customers deliver new value to their users, more of our content is deployed in each device sold. That is another great illustration of Moore Corning in action.

Speaker 2

Our industry leading innovations continue to garner widespread accolades. In fact, Fast Company named Corning the most innovative company In the consumer electronics category for 2021, touting Ceramic Shield, the world's 1st Transparent and color free glass ceramic as virtually indestructible And recognizing Gorilla Glass Victus as the toughest Gorilla Glass yet. We continue to see strong demand including smartphones, wearables, tablets and laptops launched featuring Gorilla Glass. And we expanded our capabilities into a new category By introducing Gorilla Glass with DX and DX Plus to optimize mobile phone cameras. These composite products create an attractive opportunity to increase our revenue per device.

Speaker 2

Finally, in 2021, Apple awarded Corning an additional $45,000,000 from its advanced manufacturing fund. To date, Corning has received $495,000,000 in total from Apple's fund. We're investing in multiple new inventions and innovations for mobile consumer electronics, and we're excited Our leadership in large glass puts us in a position of strength. 2021 sales grew 17% to $3,700,000,000 Our volume exceeded glass market growth as we ramp Gen 10.5 facilities The supply glass for large sized TVs, which are expected to grow at a high teens compound annual growth rate over the next several years. In 2022, we expect overall glass supply to remain tight to balanced And the pricing environment to remain favorable.

Speaker 2

We continue to believe the retail market will grow, Across our markets, long term growth drivers are strong And our role is clear. We lead in capabilities that are vital to progress. Our approach provides exciting opportunities for Corning Inventions to make a positive impact on the world. And it underscores our commitment to moving the world forward in everything that we do. Let me give you some examples outside of the operational context.

Speaker 2

In 2021, We hosted COVID-nineteen vaccination clinics at Corning sites around the world. In Reynosa, Mexico, for example, We helped administer more than 100,000 doses of vaccines and boosters to employees and community members. And we provided more than 200,000 diagnostic tests for employees around the world.

Speaker 3

We kicked off a 5 year,

Speaker 2

dollars 5,500,000 partnership with the nation's largest historically Black university, North Carolina We engaged our Board of Directors to provide guidance and resources to our Office of Racial Equality and Social Unity, Utilizing our members' diverse experience, gender, age and ethnicity to advance this new initiative. We achieved gender pay equity globally for all salaried employees and we expanded the reach of our DE and I office with regional business And finally, we committed to greenhouse gas goals that align with the Paris agreement And we signed solar contracts at Hemlock that will help the world address its renewable energy goals. I feel very good about our efforts to bolster equality inside and outside the company and Our progress on our sustainability initiatives. Overall, We continue to build a stronger, more resilient company. We're in the early innings of exciting industry transformations and key trends are converging around our capabilities.

Speaker 2

You can see it in our results. You can see it in our outlook for 2022 and advancement of new businesses towards significant commercial sales Over the next few years. Of course, to keep advancing During Corning's next 170 years, we must focus on growing and developing our leaders. We have a new generation We're stepping up to guide this company through a very exciting phase of its history and into the future. And I'm working closely with each of them.

Speaker 2

To that end, I want to recognize Tony as he prepares to hand over the reins to Ed In just a few weeks, the strong position we're in today certainly reflects The many contributions he's made throughout more than 3 decades of excellent service to Corning. Tony, we thank you and wish you the very best in retirement. At the same time, I'm excited to welcome Ed into the CFO role, which he starts on February 18. Ed has long played a key role in the growth and financial strength of our company. Tony and I have worked closely with him during that time and I look forward to the important contributions he will make in this new position.

Speaker 2

So let me turn the call over to Tony Annette, will share more details on our results, our priorities and our outlook for 2022.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Wendell, and good morning, everyone. Our growth initiatives are succeeding and we delivered another quarter of Excellent year over year growth that capped off a truly exceptional year. For the full year, sales increased 23% And EPS was up 49%. All of our segments grew with 4 out of 5 increasing sales by a double digit percentage. It was a strong year even compared to pre pandemic levels.

Speaker 3

Since 2019, we have grown sales by 21% and EPS by 18%. We nearly doubled free cash flow to $1,800,000,000 which is a conversion rate of 97% for the year. We achieved double digit ROIC and we utilized our strong cash generation to reward shareholders. We increased our dividends 9% and we reduced our outstanding shares by 5% through the resumption of share repurchases. On so many dimensions, we are feeling great.

Speaker 3

That said, as you heard from Wendell, Our gross margin percentage is not where it should be. In the 4th quarter, gross margin was 36.5%, down 180 basis points sequentially. As expected, below normal auto production and seasonally lower sales in specialty materials In addition, we restarted idle polysilicon capacity to support Hemlock's new long term solar contracts, thus incurring temporary startup cost. We expect to expand gross margin percent throughout the year. We negotiated pricing increases in long term customer contracts to more appropriately share the higher cost that we are experiencing.

Speaker 3

These increases take effect And accelerate throughout the year. As always, we expect to deliver on a robust cost reduction program. The combined benefits of these efforts should offset the cumulative inflation we experienced over the last year And what we anticipate for 2022. Our gross and operating margins will Also benefit from growing volume. Our operating leverage is such that additional volume drives good incremental profitability and becomes even more apparent as we offset inflation.

Speaker 3

We expect volume increases throughout the year. As our volumes increase and our pricing actions take effect, our gross margin percent will grow. As a reminder, the Q1 is usually our lowest volume quarter of the year. We expect specialty materials to improve on its normal cycle with Q1 typically being the lowest quarter of the year. Environmental Technology sales will improve with the resolution of the chip shortage, which we expect to happen later in the year.

Speaker 3

And optical communications will grow as we fill the capacity that we're adding to meet growing demand. For the year, we expect price increases, cost reductions and volume growth. Putting this all together, we expect Q1 to be the lowest gross margin percent quarter of the year and for gross margin to grow Now let's take a closer look at performance in each of our businesses during the 4th quarter And the full year. Let's begin with optical communications. 4th quarter sales were up 7% sequentially, exceeding $1,200,000,000 Net income increased 12%.

Speaker 3

For the full year, sales grew 22 percent to $4,300,000,000 and net income was up 51%. Capital spending on 5 gs and broadband projects. Additionally, enterprise sales were up as customers increased spending On data center builds, full year net income grew 51% driven by the incremental volume Despite cost headwinds related to materials and logistics, we're entering 2022 with a sales run rate 25% higher than where we started in 2021 and we have a strong order book. We continue to see significant public and private investments in fiber infrastructure as operators work to expand capacity, capability and access. And we expect a large multiyear wave of growth.

Speaker 3

In fact, we believe private carrier and public infrastructure investments will push the market into double digit growth. We're adding capacity to capture the growing demand and we feel really good about our position as the only Large scale end to end manufacturer of optical solutions. Turning to display, in the 4th quarter sales were $942,000,000 up 12% year over year And net income was $252,000,000

Operator

up 16%

Speaker 3

year over year. For the full year, sales were $3,700,000,000 up 17% year over year. Net income reached $960,000,000 Up 34% year over year. The pricing environment was favorable throughout the year and our excellent perspective on the display industry based on 3 main factors retail demand, panel makers production And Glassmakers' ability to supply panel makers. Our 4th quarter performance and 1st quarter outlook Reaffirm our expectations.

Speaker 3

We continue to expect that Glass at Retail will grow in 2022 by high single digits, driven by TV unit and screen size growth. We expect display glass pricing to be flat sequentially In the Q1 and supply demand balance for display glass to be tight. We expect glass supply demand to remain tight to balanced in 2022 and the pricing environment to remain favorable. Overall, we are very pleased with Display's performance in 2021 And we feel good about our outlook for 2022. We're operating from a position of strength And we intend to build on our momentum as we move forward.

Speaker 3

In Environmental Technologies, 4th quarter sales were $353,000,000 down 9% sequentially and 21% year over year. 4th quarter net income was $54,000,000 down 10% sequentially and 42% year over year on lower sales volume. These declines were driven by auto production constraints created by the semiconductor chip shortage that began in the Q2 of last year. As expected, this negatively impacted profitability for the segment and the company. Now even with this temporary setback caused by the chip shortage, for the full year, we were able to deliver double digit Sales growth enabled by our content driven growth strategy.

Speaker 3

Full year sales were nearly 1 $600,000,000 up 16% year over year, primarily driven by strength in heavy duty diesel And greater adoption of gas particulate filters. For the full year, net income was $269,000,000 up 37% year over year. As we look ahead, we're confident that our content driven approach will continue to drive out performance. And when the automotive market rebounds with the resolution of the chip shortage, We expect significant growth from current levels. Turning to Specialty Materials.

Speaker 2

Sales were

Speaker 3

$518,000,000 down 7% sequentially on normal seasonality. Sales were down 5% year over year versus a strong Q4 in 2020, following the launch of Ceramic Shield. 4th quarter net income was $92,000,000 down sequentially and year over year driven by the lower sales volume. Full year sales were up 7% and exceeded $2,000,000,000 Driven by continued strong sales of premium cover materials. Demand also remains strong for advanced optics Content used in semiconductor manufacturing as the broader end market continues to experience robust growth.

Speaker 3

Despite sales being up, full year net income was down as we invested strongly In new innovations that will be commercialized in the coming year. We have grown sales Every year since 2016 through our more Corning approach despite smartphone unit sales maturing. Over that 5 year period, we've added nearly $900,000,000 in sales On a base of $1,100,000,000 Looking ahead in 2022, We expect sales to grow faster than our underlying markets, driven by continuing adoption of our innovations and growth in advanced optics, Specifically in products for EUV lithography. And as I mentioned earlier, We expect sales to increase from the seasonal low levels we expect in the Q1. And finally, turning to life sciences, we had a great year with full sales topping $1,200,000,000 up 24% year over year.

Speaker 3

4th quarter sales were $317,000,000 up 16% year over year. This strong performance was driven by ongoing demand to support the global pandemic response, Continued recovery in academic and pharmaceutical research labs and strong demand for bioproduction vessels and diagnostic related consumables. Full year net income was $194,000,000 up 40%. 4th quarter net income was $49,000,000 up 17% year over year. Looking ahead to 2022, we expect our strong growth to continue driven by COVID-nineteen vaccine rollouts, Strong research funding, lab utilization returning to pre pandemic levels and growth in the bioproduction segment.

Speaker 3

I also want to spend a minute on our other segment. As a reminder, the majority of sales in our other segment are at Hemlock Semiconductor Group. During the year, Hemlock saw new demand for solar grade polysilicon. With the increased activity and interest in U. S.-based solar manufacturing, customers have turned to Hemlock, A leader in polysilicon manufacturing.

Speaker 3

So in addition to selling polysilicon for use in semiconductors, Hemlock was able to sell solar polysilicon from inventory. Going forward, Solar remains a strong revenue opportunity for Hemlock. In the Q4, we signed long term take or pay supply contracts with minimal capital investment to meet this demand. As I mentioned earlier, gross margins were impacted in the 4th quarter as we incurred temporary cost to restart solar polysilicon capacity. This will improve throughout the year as solar production increases.

Speaker 3

Additionally, our Auto Glass and Pharmaceutical Packaging emerging businesses are also in the other segment And both businesses significantly grew sales during the year as well. Stepping back, we made strong progress across all of our businesses in 2021. We entered new product categories, announced collaboration with key industry leaders and contributed to significant industry advancements. We're building a strong foundation for future growth. This combined with our consistent focus on Innovation and deep commitment to RD and E is what continues to fuel and sustain Corning's leadership position across its markets.

Speaker 3

Looking ahead, we expect Corning sales and EPS to grow year over year In the Q1, we expect sales to be in the range of $3,500,000,000 to $3,700,000,000 And EPS in the range of $0.48 to $0.53 Sales are down sequentially due to this Typical seasonal volume declines. For the full year, we expect sales of approximately $15,000,000,000 And profit to grow faster than sales. Before I turn things over to Ed, I'd like to take a moment to express my gratitude. First, to all Corning employees Whose dedication and commitment to this great company is such an inspiration. 2nd, to those of you on the call and all our shareholders for being on this journey with us, We're working hard every day to maintain your trust and reward your confidence in us.

Speaker 3

And finally, I'd like to thank Wendell, Ed and my fellow members of Corning's senior leadership team. I'm proud to have played a role in building the strong foundation Corning has today. It's truly been a wonderful journey. As Ed takes the reins in just a few weeks, I'm fully confident in his ability to build on this foundation and continue creating value for all our shareholders. With that,

Speaker 4

I'll turn it over to Ed. Thanks, Tony, and hello everyone. I'm looking forward to connecting with you in the days months ahead, so we can expand on the thoughts I share today Before I start, I'd like to say that it's been an honor working alongside Tony All these years. Under his tenure, we met or exceeded all the goals of our 4 year strategy and capital allocation framework. And today, we're performing well against the subsequent goals we outlined in our strategy and growth framework in 2019.

Speaker 4

Our execution has created a stronger, more resilient Corning and that provided vital proved vital as the pandemic unfolded. Our solid footing enabled us to preserve our financial strength throughout 2020. And it kept us well positioned for growth in 2021. Throughout it all, Tony's focus on financial stewardship has been central to our results, And I plan to sustain that disciplined approach. So let me walk through my priorities as CFO As I work to ensure that Corning continues to be an excellent steward of capital.

Speaker 4

We expect another strong year of Cash generation in 2022 and our financial priorities remain unchanged. We will continue to invest our cash to support organic growth, extend our leadership and reward shareholders. 1st, We will continue to invest for growth, primarily through RD and E and CapEx. RD and E is fundamental to our long term success and our allocation will be consistent with previous years. In 2022, We expect to keep CapEx consistent with 2021.

Speaker 4

Our investments include adding capacity to meet growing demand, introduce new innovations and improve productivity. Shareholder returns also remain a key priority. In 2022, we expect to increase our dividend per share By approximately 10%. And we expect to continue opportunistic share repurchases, Building on the 5% of outstanding shares we repurchased in 2021. In the near term, improving gross margin is my top priority.

Speaker 4

We expect improvement throughout 2022 as sales grow and our pricing actions take hold. Overall, I'll close today saying that I'm optimistic about our growth trajectory for 2022 and excited to step into the CFO role. We're building on a strong foundation. Our capabilities are relevant to major trends playing out across the industries we serve. Our more Corning approach is working and we're executing effectively through some very volatile end markets, expanding relationships and commitments with our customers and extending our leadership position.

Speaker 4

Based on the growth drivers and financial priorities you've heard this morning, I feel good about delivering on our expectation to grow sales I look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Anne for Q and A.

Operator

Thanks, Ed.

Speaker 1

Okay, Shannon, we are ready for the first question. And I ask that folks please try to keep it to one question so we can get through as many as we can.

Operator

Our first question comes from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Yes, thank you. When you look at your comments on long term contracts, where you're negotiating pricing, can you give us some sense of what percent of your revenue is Tied into these contracts and how should investors think about the bridge to $15,000,000,000 in revenues? How much of that increase would you say is Pricing versus content versus market growth. Thank you. And Tony, thanks for all you have done for Corning.

Speaker 5

It's been a pleasure working with you.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Wamsi. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2

So let's deal with the pricing question first. So first, let's pull out display For a moment, we provide glass pricing guidance each and every quarter in display. And you know that we expect the pricing environment to remain favorable. And you just received both what happened in quarter 4, which was flat sequential pricing and display in our guide For a flat sequential pricing in quarter 1 as well. As you look at Let's take now take all of our other segments, Opto, Life Sciences, Auto and MCE.

Speaker 2

If we take them as a whole, We expect price to be up in total dollars year over year. Now each of the businesses is different. There's different types of contracts. And then within each of those, You have different customers in different positions. So it's hard to reach a general statement.

Speaker 2

But I think as you think about it analytically, Basically, we expect prices as a whole in those segments to go up. Turning to the $15,000,000,000 like always for us That you should be thinking about it primarily as being driven by our growth. The way the sort of construct that you heard from Tony is that if we look back at this past year, We had cost inflation much higher than a normal year of increasing input cost. And when we're looking at the pricing is that we expect to share that more appropriately with our customers And the price together with our normal robust cost reduction will put us in a position to offset inflation we've already experienced as well as what we anticipate for 2022. That then allows the volume growth To drop to the gross margin line with our normal sort of robustness And without any sort of friction cost driven by excess inflation.

Speaker 2

So that's the way we tend to think about the $15,000,000,000 that's the way we think about price, cost and then how it turns into gross margin percentage gains As volume grows and the price actions take effect. Thanks Wendell.

Speaker 1

Next question.

Operator

Our next question comes from Tim Long with Barclays. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

Thank you. I wanted to ask on the optical comms business, obviously, pretty strong in the quarter. Can you talk a little bit, Have you already started to see the benefits from the renewed agreement with AT and T? And looking out at this business, it sounds like you think you can see double digit growth the next several years. So could you talk a little bit about how you see The margin progression over time, do you think net margins can get back to levels they were a few years ago given higher growth and pricing actions Thank you.

Speaker 3

Yes. I think the short answer to that is for sure we think that Margins will expand in this business for all the reasons that Wendell just explained. I mean, first, we are taking pricing actions here. That's where a lot of our long term supply agreements are and those will roll out through the year. And then secondly, when you combine it with the volume increase that we So yes, we expect our margins to increase.

Speaker 3

And in terms of AT and T, obviously, they're very important customer for us And we continue to see the benefits from that relationship.

Speaker 6

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Martin Yang with Oppenheimer. Your line is open.

Speaker 7

Hi, thank you for taking my question. Can you maybe talk about the cadence for price increase And your associated margin expansion for the majority of this year and is there any 1 quarter where we should expect most of the pricing impact to be fully accounted for.

Speaker 3

Yes. I mean, it's Martin, I mean, it's clearly going to roll out At different times, at different pace by customers, we'd expect to see some of it start kicking in, in Q1 and then accelerate From there, what we'd expect to have happened is Q1 be our lowest quarter from a gross margin standpoint. And then when you add the sales volume increase that we expect, as we described how those dynamics work, we'd expect gross margin to expand from there throughout the year.

Speaker 2

The way we tend to think about it cycle wise is that Q1 will be the lowest amount of incremental price And it builds as the year goes on as more and more of the contracts are and increased pricing Go into effect and as it applies to more volume just following our normal sort of seasonal cycle in our businesses.

Speaker 7

I guess, I was trying to get that is, is there any potential for The price increase with customers, the effect of that to maybe lingering into 2023 also?

Speaker 2

It's an excellent question. Like many things, When we wrestle with the issue of inflation and we try to figure out how to deal with that problem, We learn things and we develop new tools. I would say that our customers Have been very fair with us and they've been very favorable discussions. There's a good mutual understanding that We rely on each other. We're real partners.

Speaker 2

We tend not to be transactional with our customers and our customers aren't transactional with us. So the good news is those long term nature of those relationships Mean that each and every time we evolve that relationship, it tends to last us. So I think it all really depends On what happens with inflation going forward, the key thematic is that We will own our part with the type of rigorous cost reduction we normally do. But for these excess costs, this excess inflation, they've agreed to share that in a more appropriate fashion with us.

Speaker 7

Got it. That's perfectly clear. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Next question?

Operator

Our next question comes from Steven Fox with Fox Advisors. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Thanks. Good morning. Tony, congrats on your retirement and Thanks for all your help over the years. Really appreciate it. Thanks, David.

Speaker 5

Thanks. In terms of my question, I guess, I was wondering if you guys could dig into Specialty materials a little bit more. It sounded like there are some new drivers that's going to help sales growth this year. Just trying to understand Maybe the new versus the more typical growth of the recent years and then maybe its impact on gross margins for the coming year. Thanks.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Steve. Thanks especially for the comments on Tony. I think when you think about specialty, you're just seeing the inverse of what you see this year in terms of margin. We're investing in new programs that are stealth in nature. As the spending has gone up, the investments has gone up as we begin to sort of ramp some of those production assets, They're not totally stable yet and we're continuing to invest in the product technology.

Speaker 2

And what we expect is as we work our way through this year, Those products will get introduced. They'll start generating revenue. We'll get more efficient in making them And therefore, they'll turn into profit year over year profit gains as we work our way through 2022.

Speaker 5

So more of a second half type of story, everything you just said, Wendell?

Speaker 2

Yes. Yes. I think more of a second half, Which is, as you know, tends to be relatively typical in mobile consumer electronics.

Speaker 5

Yes, got it. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Great. Next question.

Operator

Our next question comes from John Roberts with UBS. Your line is open.

Speaker 7

Thanks. Best of wishes

Speaker 8

as well, Tony, and welcome, Edward. Since we have so much CFO firepower here on this call, Corning met the earlier financial goals that were laid out, but they didn't include an ROIC target. And if you look at Slide 38, Again, ROIC is only 10%. Do you think we'll have a focus on that going forward? You pivoted to focus on gross margin.

Speaker 8

I don't know if you're going to pivot Maybe to focus on ROIC as well and maybe wrap the capital spending outlook in with that as well.

Speaker 3

Sure. I mean, I think that if you look back over the last several years, it's actually been a pretty significant improvement In ROIC, and it was clearly one of our focuses both on the original strategy And capital allocation framework, but if you go back to what we talked about in 2019, it was a very specific commitment to get To that at least above 10% level, which I'm really proud of the fact that we accomplished that in 2021, especially when you think about the challenges From a pandemic standpoint. But for sure, continuing to expand ROIC, which is kind of the ultimate Measure of profitability is a real focus areas for us. And so that also remains a high priority from a financial management standpoint.

Speaker 4

Yes. I would add, John, that we expect to grow as we've shared with you and expand our margins and we gave you our capital guidance. So we certainly are focused on ROIC and expect it to continue to be important for us as we go forward.

Speaker 7

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Next question?

Operator

Our next question is from Assia Merchant with Citi. Your line is open.

Speaker 9

Great. Thank you for the opportunity. And Tony, once again, thank you for all your help. I have a quick question on margins. I mean, you got some pushback this quarter.

Speaker 9

I think Tony mentioned There were some startup costs that impacted margins this quarter, which as Wendell pointed out were underwhelming relative to expectations. My understanding was some of those cost negotiations and inflationary pressures being passed on to customers were being negotiated in 4Q as well. So where did you get the most pushback on that? And why do you feel so confident that These inflationary pressures should abate in 2022 with the negotiated contract. Thank you.

Speaker 2

So it wasn't so much it's really just a timing question. It wasn't so much of What goes into effect exactly in Q4 and who pushed against us and who did it? Really, it's just since these are all long term contract based. And the reason we have these long term contracts is that our core value creation comes from us making product And having a high transformation value driven by our factories. And the key thing we need to do to drive that ROIC up And to give good streams of earnings to our investors is to make sure we derisk that capital investment.

Speaker 2

So the good news with that is that the way inflation works is that tends to put some dampening Of the effective inflation on us because of our fixed cost structure being relatively high. But the downside is Those long term contracts, you have to actually sit down and renegotiate them. So what gives us confidence is We've renegotiated them and reached a formal agreement with our customers on this is what their pricing will be. So it takes time to do that, to reach agreement that what is the appropriate sharing. But the good news is, is once you reach agreement, You have agreement and then now we just execute and that's where we are.

Speaker 2

Now we're not closed with everybody. There's more to do And that's another reason that some of it builds through the year. Okay. And with regard Okay. Sorry.

Speaker 10

Sorry, Atiya. And with regard to the startup costs that you mentioned, that was primarily in Hemlock and that's actually pretty exciting thing for us. As you know, when we did the transaction around Hebloc in September of 2020, It was primarily based on a semiconductor market and we looked at solar as an option. That solar appears to be materializing And we have signed long term contracts and that's where the startup costs came from.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Jeff.

Speaker 2

All right,

Speaker 1

next question.

Operator

Our next question comes from Samik Chatterjee with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Speaker 11

Hi. Thank you. Hi, thanks for taking my question and congrats to Tony and Ed. I was going to just ask on display here. Tony, you sounded optimistic about the retail TV environment in 2022.

Speaker 11

At least in 4Q from the data We saw I mean, we haven't seen any positive data points. At least the industry seemed a bit more bearish or sort of Seeing a soft environment in terms of TV retail in 4Q. So what's really driving in terms of data points and maybe what you're looking at driving that optimism about TV Unit outlook in 2022. And separately, just on the screen size as well, I mean, some of the recent data shows screen size increases aren't going up as much as It used to, is there a inflation driven change in consumer behavior where consumers are maybe pulling back a bit in terms of moving to higher screen sizes?

Speaker 2

Thank you. Well, thanks for the question on display. No, we think it's really it's an important area because what we have heard from investors Is that a key factor weighing on our stock price is a concern that the current cycle of downward price and profits In the LCD panel industry, would cause a significant glass price and profit squeeze for Corning. Now what we said in quarter 3 is that we believe glass supply demand balance will be tight. And therefore, the glass pricing environment will remain favorable.

Speaker 2

And therefore, we did not expect a significant reduction in our profit stream. We now have quarter 4 data. Glass price was flat sequentially. Further, we guided that for quarter 1, the glass price will be flat sequentially. Once again, glass supply demand remains tight.

Speaker 2

So now we have more confirmatory evidence to support our belief that the pricing environment Will be favorable in 2022. That I think is the Core evidence that we're looking at. Now when you shift to thinking about the market, retail, the full glass out in retail Overall, it's like in the range of what we anticipated, right? And size, we actually Expect to do quite well in the coming year. One of the things that happened sort of during the pandemic is that a lot of Smaller screens were sold and that tends to be the place where the units we expected to drop off more And they have, which is sort of has the effect of also accelerating if anything, the diagonal growth on That's the way we tend to think about size and retail.

Speaker 2

Would you guys have anything to add on that?

Speaker 3

No, I think that's exactly right. I Our expectations for the year really haven't changed. They're pretty well in line from a unit standpoint with what 3rd party people in the industry are looking at and the screen size we're very confident in. I mean that inch and a half has been Pretty consistent for a very long period of time. And when you look at the growth above 65 inches TVs over the last year, It just confirms that 1.5 inches We feel very confident about that.

Speaker 12

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Next question?

Operator

Our next question comes from George Notter with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Speaker 13

Hi, guys. Thanks very much. I guess I wanted to ask about the optical business. Obviously, I think the bet there is just how fast you guys can Span manufacturing capacity, I saw you grew that business obviously about 6.5% sequentially. So you're making progress.

Speaker 13

But At the same time, we hear about how your lead times are nearly 2 years for high count fiber cables. So Maybe you could talk about the gating items to expanding capacity there. Is it resin? Is it Buildings and draw towers, just kind of walk us through what you see. And then last thing, congrats to Tony.

Speaker 2

Thanks, George. Thanks. Like as you point out, I will comment on our specific backlog by product line. But As you point out, if we could make more, we could sell more. And that's why we announced The capacity expansions that we did last year and we expect those to ramp as the year goes on.

Speaker 2

With each of those capacity expansions, we need to have in place long term commitments from our customers And we have those and that is ramping. So the real bottleneck isn't resin, isn't raw material, isn't labor. It is just us being able to get into place capacity that is more appropriately balanced to the demand that we are experiencing.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Wendell. All right, next question?

Operator

Our next question comes from Rod Hall with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Speaker 12

Yes, thanks for fitting me in. Congrats Tony, great working with you. Best of luck in retirement.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Craig.

Speaker 12

So I had two questions. 1 on Hemlock. The Hemlock commentary on solar, I thought was Pretty positive. Do you guys have any ideas for growth there in 2022 on 2021, Mid single digit, any kind of indication you could give us for that?

Speaker 4

Hi, Rod. We're not specifically giving guidance, but what I would say is we've signed a number of long term multiyear agreements. We received cash upfront, they're take or pay agreements. So we're highly confident that we'll be able to fill the capacity that we have coming online. So you'll see that expand through the year in 2022.

Speaker 2

I think one of the interesting dynamics that Ann could maybe sit down with you on afterwards, right. It's from a modeling standpoint. When we did the Hemlock transaction, as you heard Jeff, we really stood on the semiconductor business, but we picked up all of those Solar capabilities really is an option. With that was inventory that we also had It was solar grade. And so just through this year, we sold down a hunk of that inventory, which Generated cash nicely.

Speaker 2

And then now you're really seeing new Solar grade Polycyte being made by us with the start up that you're talking about. So when you work through the modeling, let's have And sit down to provide a little bit of help on just sort of how that worked.

Speaker 12

Okay, great. Thanks, Wendell. And then The buyback is kind of back to the same level it was in December 2019. Should we be thinking like we're back into kind of a Normalized buyback regime, no?

Speaker 3

Well, for sure, Rod, our approach from a buyback standpoint is that first we generate very strong operating cash flow and our first priority is to invest that in our business and our growth and Sustained leadership. And then obviously, once we've done that, we want to return the cash to shareholders. As Ed mentioned, we've increased the dividend in 2021 and we expect to increase the dividend in 2022. And then we'll be opportunistic on buybacks. And we saw Q4 as a really great opportunity to buy back shares where the stock price was.

Speaker 3

And We'll continue to pursue buybacks on an opportunistic basis.

Speaker 12

Great. Okay. Thanks a lot, Tony. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Shannon, let's take one more question, please.

Operator

Our last question is from Meta Marshall with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Speaker 14

Great. Thanks. Maybe just a question on environmental. I just wanted to get a sense of Clearly supply chain is an issue with autos right now, but we hear a lot of like cars that are basically ready to go And just need a chip. And so just trying to get a sense of when you would expect to see environmental tick back up?

Speaker 14

Is it when The supply chain shortage kind of alleviates itself on the auto market or you would need kind of a quarter or 2 after that to work through kind of inventory that they may have?

Speaker 2

We don't see a significant inventory sort of Overhang for our product. One of the reason is that our demand supply was tight for that product to begin with as we worked our way Through the year and our content strategy has put a good amount of strain on our ability to supply. So in general, if you had a point of view on when chips started to come back for auto and as auto production scaled, we would expect to roughly follow that timing.

Speaker 14

Great. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Great. Thanks, Nina. All right. Thank you all for joining us today. Before we close, I wanted to let everyone know that we will attend the SIG 11th Annual Tech Conference on March 4th and the Morgan Stanley Global Technology Media and Telecom Conference on March 8th.

Speaker 1

We'll also host management visits to investor offices in select cities. Finally, a web replay of today's call will be available on our site starting later this morning. So thank you all for joining us, Shannon, that concludes our call. Please disconnect all lines.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
Corning Q4 2021
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