Corning slashed at JPMorgan on tepid recovery: 4 big analyst cuts

Investing.com — Here is your Pro Recap of the biggest analyst cuts you may have missed since yesterday: downgrades at Corning, Qorvo, Skyworks Solutions, and Juniper Networks.

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Corning shares fall on JPMorgan downgrade

Corning (NYSE:GLW) shares fell nearly 2% pre-market today after JPMorgan slashed the specialty-glass and ceramics maker to Neutral from Overweight, and cut its price target to $36 from $43, as reported in real-time on InvestingPro.

The analysts say they now expect a more prolonged economic recovery than they initially did, and say this is expected to mute Corning earnings upside in the near to medium term.

“The direct consequence of a milder recovery is considerable downside to current consensus estimates that embed sequential earnings growth in 4Q23E, as well as downside to consensus expectations of +25% y/y EPS growth in 2024E,” wrote JPMorgan.

While still forecasting a 17% year-over-year earnings growth in 2024, driven by various profitability-enhancing actions, the analysts perceive that variability in the timing of revenue recovery across Corning's end markets will limit the opportunity to deliver the strong earnings growth indicated by the Wall Street consensus.

Shares were nearly breakeven in recent trading at $29.48.

Qorvo and Skyworks Solutions cut to Sell at Citi

Both Qorvo (NASDAQ:QRVO) and Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ:SWKS) were downgraded to Sell from Neutral by Citi. For both smartphone chipmakers - each a major supplier to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) - Citi cited increased to their China operations after the Huawei Mate 60 phone launch, which it believes will likely use domestic RF/connectivity chips.

“While QRVO/SWKS China sales have already come down over the last 1+ year due to weak China smartphone demand or ~21%/~11% of last reported FY," wrote Citi, "we believe increasing competition from Chinese domestic RF component makers will lead to potential share losses at OVX (Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi) and weak sales recovery in 2024."

Qorvo's price target was slashed by nearly one-third, to $78 from the prior $116.00, and Skyworks Solutions' price target is now $87 at Citi, also from a prior $116.

Qorvo shares were down 1.9% to $93.08 in recent trading. Skyworks sank at the open after rough premarket trading, but clawed its way back to a fractional uptick to $98.59 about an hour post-open.

Juniper Networks stock slips after JPMorgan downgrade

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) shares were falling 1.6% Tuesday after JPMorgan downgraded the company to Neutral from Overweight and cut its price target by $3 to $29.

JPMorgan cited a number of challenges, including a lack of leverage to Hyperscale investments in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

Analysts also pointed to headwinds in relation to Service Provider capex moderation, which they say position Juniper as the most challenged on a relative basis among its networking peers like Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET).

JPMorgan added:

"While the overall drivers in relation to elevated backlog in conjunction with moderating orders is likely similar for Juniper as it is for other Networking companies like Cisco and Arista, we expect the magnitude of the headwinds are much greater for Juniper relative to the peer group due to exposure to Service providers as well as Cloud exposure in relation to WAN layers, which remain at a lower priority relative to switching layers as well as AI infrastructure related ramps."

Shares of Juniper were recently changing hands at $26.37.

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