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Shares of Corning (GLW) took a 5.61% hit Tuesday, January 30,as the company reported a huge quarterly loss of $1.66 a share–or $1.412 billion. But all that loss was due to a $1.8 billion accounting write down as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Excluding that one-time item Corning reported earnings of 49 cents a share, slightly above Wall Street expectations for 47 cents a share. Sales climbed 7.4% year over year to $2.739 billion, above analyst estimates of $2.65 billion.

In its individual business segments revenue from display technologies dropped 6% year over year to $847 million. Despite an continued improvement in the rate of price declines in display glass, earnings in the segment fell 20% as analysts had projected.

Sales for optical communication grew 13% year over year for the quarter and 18% for the full 2017 year. Earnings in the segment slipped by 3% however.

In Environmental Technologies sales climbed 19% year over year, well above guidance. Earnings rose by 12% in the segment.

In the company’s life sciences segment sales climbed 9% year over year. Earnings grew 18%.

Finally, specialty materials sales jumped 17% to $393 million, led by the increased adoption of Gorilla Glass in electronic devices and new wins for the automotive version of Gorilla Glass.

For the full 2018 year, the company expects to see sales of $11 billion, up from $10.51 billion in 2017 and ahead of Wall Street estimates for $10.68 billion.

Corning is a member of my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio where shares are up 258.8% since purchase on December 30, 2008. The shares pay a dividend yield of 1.8%.