I was reviewing my portfolio recently and decided it was finally time to remove Corning (GLW) from my Puget Investor Portfolio. I originally started accumulating Corning starting in 2011 thru 2013, as I felt it was a fairly low risk cheap stock that would benefit from the global increase in cell phone ownership (Corning’s flagship glass product is Gorilla Glass used on most SmartPhones). The stock also yielded over 2% so it seemed a safe bet even if the stock went nowhere.
The thesis worked out pretty well – as Gorilla Glass maintained its popularity with manufacturers, the stock slowly crept up. In addition, since 2011 the dividend has increased from 7.5 cents a share to 12 cents a share.
Recently however, with the likely drop off in the Chinese economy, my recent loss of faith in Apple, and the rising competition for glass products from Samsung, I decided I no longer had a clear reason to hold Corning. True that Corning has been holding off the competition for years, but I really don’t know if their glass is better than the up-and-comers.
GLW and I part as friends, as I feel I did OK in this case, and indeed I may pick some up again in the future. Corning seems like a solid holding, and sometimes I am a sucker for dividend yields, and GLW still yields 2.78. But starting in October Corning will out of the Puget Investor portfolio, part of my ongoing review of my holdings and making sure I have a valid reason for owning particular stocks.