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 $19.2 billion
Industry Electronic components
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $7.9 billion
Management Chairman/CEO Wendell Weeks
Vice chairman/CFO James Flaws
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years) 16.8%
Cash/Debt $6.8 billion / $3.2 billion
Dividend Yield 2.3%
Competitors Asahi Glass
Furukawa Electric
Sumitomo Electric Industries

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

On CAPS, 98% of the 5,326 members who have rated Corning believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.

A few months ago, one of those Fools, Laize, touched on the tailwinds working in Corning's favor:

Despite what I believe to be lackadaisical management, Corning's product lineup is top notch. The tremendous worldwide demand for fiber optic cable and strong moat in specialty materials (aka: gorilla glass) provides them excellent pricing power to keep their margins fat. To heck with LCD displays (even though worldwide demand for LCD tvs is sure to increase over the next few years) being glutted. Corning is far more than LCD substrates.

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