Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) reported better-than-expected first-quarter 2014 results before markets opened Monday, giving shares a boost in premarket trading.

The industrial materials company posted adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.31 on revenues of $2.39 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company reported adjusted EPS of $0.30 on revenues of $1.81 billion. First-quarter results also compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $0.30 and $2.30 billion in revenues.

The company’s CEO said:

We are continuing our trend of core earnings improvement with our first-quarter performance. This represents our sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year core earnings growth.

The company said core sales in its Display Technologies segment increased 58% year-over-year, due to consolidation of Corning Precision Materials Co. Sales in its Optical Communications segment increased 26% from the year-ago period, and Environmental Technologies sales grew 21%.

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The company’s CFO added:

The strong first-quarter performance across all our business units has given us momentum for the remainder of the year. … We continue to deliver on our goal to return value to shareholders through our share buyback program, growth across all of Corning’s segments, and successful execution on the synergies to be gained through the Corning Precision Materials integration.

The consensus forecast of analysts calls for EPS of $1.47 on revenues of $10.08 billion for the year. For the second quarter, analysts estimate EPS at $0.36 on $2.51 billion in revenue.

Corning shares were up 4.4% in premarket trading Monday, at $21.66 in a 52-week range of $13.82 to $21.77. Note that Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of only $20.28 before this report.

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