5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Corning

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, specialty glass and ceramics giant Corning (NYSE: GLW  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Corning's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Corning facts

Headquarters (Founded)	Corning, N.Y. (1851)
Market Cap	$20.7 billion
Industry	Electronic components
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$7.77 billion
Management	Chairman/CEO Wendell Weeks Vice Chairman/CFO James Flaws
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years)	15.6%
Cash/Debt	$6.42 billion / $2.31 billion
Dividend Yield	2.3%
Competitors	3M (NYSE: MMM  ) Becton Dickinson (NYSE: BDX  ) TE Connectivity (NYSE: TEL  )

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 98% of the 4,770 members who have rated Corning believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include useless33 and ikkyu2, who is ranked in the top 2% of our community.

Earlier this week, useless33 tapped Corning as a crystal clear bargain opportunity:

The company is trading at a 6-7 multiple for what appears to be concern over LCDs (A significant chunk of sales), and Gorilla Glass. Even if you factor in a large slowdown for those two elements, you've got a money-making company paying a 2% dividend with a wide moat and a diverse array of products. Sounds like a not-so-terrible deal.

In fact, Corning currently sports a paltry P/E of 6.2. That represents a clear discount to competitors like 3M (13.1), Becton Dickinson (12.8), and TE Connectivity (11.1).

CAPS All-Star ikkyu2 elaborates on the bull case:

Best-in-breed when it comes to specialty glasses of all kinds. Household word due to their Visions cookware; also make flatpanel TV screens, smartphone screens, etc. Competition has to explain why Corning's product is too expensive or isn't as good in every case; and in some cases (i.e. iPhone 4 glass, which isn't Gorilla Glass) competition is clearly inferior. Corning has set the standard in glass for nearly a century.

I think we're looking at a pretty basic discounted cyclical value play. Anyone with a long term investment horizon ought to be happy to get this company at this price.

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