Belden vs Corning
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The short version
- Corning is the larger business, with $15.6B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $2.7B for Belden, about 5.8 times as much.
- Corning grew revenue faster (19.1%, against 10.3%).
- Corning kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (14.6% operating margin, against 11.6%).
- Corning turned more of its sales into free cash flow (9.0% FCF margin, against 8.1%).
- Belden earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (13.3%, against 10.8%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Corning’s earnings: a P/E of 56.5x against 16.9x for Belden.
| Latest fiscal year | BDC · FY25 | GLW · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $4.1B | $108.2B |
| Revenue | $2.7B | $15.6B |
| Free cash flow | $219M | $1.4B |
| Net income | $238M | $1.6B |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 10.3% | 19.1% |
| 5-year growth | 9.2% | 6.7% |
| Share count change | −2.6% | 0.2% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 38.0% | 36.0% |
| Operating margin | 11.6% | 14.6% |
| Net margin | 8.8% | 10.2% |
| FCF margin | 8.1% | 9.0% |
| Return on capital | 13.3% | 10.8% |
| Return on equity | 18.6% | 14.2% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $906M | $6.9B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.0x | 1.9x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $8.0M | $1.2B |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 16.9x | 56.5x |
| Piotroski F-score | 8 | 6 |
Revenue
FY16
BDC $2.4B
GLW $9.4B
FY17
BDC $2.1B
GLW $10.1B
FY18
BDC $2.2B
GLW $11.3B
FY19
BDC $2.1B
GLW $11.5B
FY20
BDC $1.8B
GLW $11.3B
FY21
BDC $2.3B
GLW $14.1B
FY22
BDC $2.6B
GLW $14.2B
FY23
BDC $2.5B
GLW $12.6B
FY24
BDC $2.5B
GLW $13.1B
FY25
BDC $2.7B
GLW $15.6B
BDC
GLW
Operating margin
FY16
BDC 9.9%
GLW 15.2%
FY17
BDC 11.2%
GLW 15.9%
FY18
BDC 14.5%
GLW 14.0%
FY19
BDC 9.7%
GLW 11.4%
FY20
BDC 8.6%
GLW 4.5%
FY21
BDC 11.5%
GLW 15.0%
FY22
BDC 13.9%
GLW 10.1%
FY23
BDC 12.6%
GLW 7.1%
FY24
BDC 10.8%
GLW 8.7%
FY25
BDC 11.6%
GLW 14.6%
BDC
GLW
Free cash flow
FY16
BDC $261M
GLW —
FY17
BDC $191M
GLW —
FY18
BDC $191M
GLW $677M
FY19
BDC $167M
GLW $53.0M
FY20
BDC $83.2M
GLW $803M
FY21
BDC $181M
GLW $1.8B
FY22
BDC $176M
GLW $1.0B
FY23
BDC $203M
GLW $615M
FY24
BDC $223M
GLW $974M
FY25
BDC $219M
GLW $1.4B
BDC
GLW
Return on capital
FY16
BDC 10.2%
GLW 8.2%
FY17
BDC 10.0%
GLW 4.9%
FY18
BDC 9.3%
GLW 6.6%
FY19
BDC 6.7%
GLW 5.8%
FY20
BDC 6.1%
GLW 2.3%
FY21
BDC 12.8%
GLW 9.3%
FY22
BDC 18.0%
GLW 6.4%
FY23
BDC 15.8%
GLW 4.0%
FY24
BDC 12.1%
GLW 4.8%
FY25
BDC 13.3%
GLW 10.8%
BDC
GLW
Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.