For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. Not only can it impact your investment portfolio, but it can also help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

FOMO, or the fear of missing out, also plays a role in investing, particularly with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Corning (GLW Quick QuoteGLW - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to GLW for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Corning's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Corning's main business drivers.

New York-based Corning Incorporated started out as a glass business that was reincorporated in 1936. The company has since developed its glass technologies to produce advanced glass substrates that are used in a large number of applications across multiple markets. Corning reports results under six operating segments.

The Display Technologies segment (21.6% of total core sales in 2025) includes glass substrates that are commonly found in liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs, notebooks and flat-panel desktop personal computer (PC) monitors. The company’s specialty, active-matrix substrates improve the brightness and sharpness of images.

The company’s Optical Communications products (39%) may be categorized into two. The first category comprises cables. Products are typically sold to its own subsidiaries, which then distribute to end users. The second category is hardware and equipment, which comprises optical and copper connectivity products.

Automotive Business segment (9.9%) is created by separating the Automotive Glass Solutions business from the Hemlock and Emerging Growth Business and converging it with the Environmental Technologies segment in the first quarter of 2025. The segment also makes ceramic substrates required for mobile and stationary pollution and emission control systems. The primary users of Corning’s products are automotive and diesel engine manufacturers.

Specialty Materials (12.3%) include different formulations for glass, glass ceramics and fluoride crystals that render special properties to each separate substrate, making it suitable for specific industrial and commercial use.

Life Sciences segment (5.5%) products are sold under the Corning, Costar and Pyrex brands primarily for laboratory equipment, such as microplate products, coated slides, filter plates for genomics sample preparation, plastic cell culture dishes, flasks, cryogenic vials, roller bottles, mass cell culture products, liquid handling instruments, Pyrex glass beakers, serological pipettes, centrifuge tubes and laboratory filtration products. Hemlock and Emerging Growth Businesses, which include solar and semiconductor products and all other businesses that are not part of any other segments, accounted for 11.9% of total sales.

Bottom Line

Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of a few things: research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Corning a decade ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

A $1000 investment made in April 2016 would be worth $7,857.55, or a 685.76% gain, as of April 20, 2026, according to our calculations. Investors should note that this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 242.48% and gold's return of 274.83% over the same time frame.

Analysts are anticipating more upside for GLW.

Corning continues to focus on developing state-of-the-art cover materials, which have been deployed on more than 8 billion devices. It offers several products focused on the data center, with a portfolio consisting of optical fiber, hardware, cables and connectors, enabling it to create optical solutions to meet evolving customer needs. This augurs well for its long-term growth. Its focus on AI integration is positive. Collaboration with AUO Corporation will boost prospects in Automotive. However, end market diversification is limited within the Display and Optical segments, which account for more than half of total revenues. Auto segment faces headwinds due to weak demand in Europe and North America. The company's extensive presence in China exposes it to Sino-U.S. trade hostilities. Weakness in the Display Technologies is a headwind.

The stock has jumped 31.95% over the past four weeks. Additionally, no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 3 higher, for fiscal 2026; the consensus estimate has moved up as well.