Lumen Technologies, Inc. (LUMN) is a facilities-based technology and communications company that provides a variety of integrated products and services under the Lumen, Quantum Fiber, and CenturyLink brands to customers in the US and around the world. The company is divided into two segments, Business and Mass Markets, and offers cloud services, IT solutions, unified communication and collaboration solutions, colocation and data center services, content delivery services, managed security services, IP and data services, fiber infrastructure services, private line services, traditional time division multiplexing voice services, synchronous optical network-based Ethernet, legacy data hosting services, and conferencing services.
as of February 8, 2023
Pivoting is hard and while the company still generates a great deal of profit, and a revised allocation strategy will help it be flexible and spur growth, it carries $26 billion of debt. More importantly, the board eliminated the annual dividend and authorized a two-year $1.5 billion share buy back program instead. The short term price flux won’t matter as long as the company can pay down debt and boost EPS. By the end of 2023, Lumen’s shares outstanding should be down to 900 million with net income at $1.4 billion. Furthermore, Lumen’s gross margin is 56%, return on equity sits at 17% and the net margin is at 11%. These are all more than respectable numbers for a company in a transition phase.
