Lumen Technologies Inc (LUMN) Quote

Found it. Just from today.


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A Lumen executive talks AI, Verizon’s fiber deal — and meme-stock status
Published: Sept. 12, 2024 at 3:23 p.m. ET
By Emily Bary
MarketWatch recently caught up with Lumen CFO Chris Stansbury, who discussed the opportunities ahead in AI and consumer fiber


While Lumen Technologies Inc. shares have cooled a bit off their peak levels from a month ago, they’ve still maintained much of their artificial-intelligence boost — and Chief Financial Officer Chris Stansbury sees more opportunity ahead.

The telecommunications and fiber stock lit up during the summer as Lumen LUMN announced that it planned to monetize its conduit by working with artificial-intelligence players looking to connect data centers. The company announced $5 billion in AI business already signed and said that there could be opportunity for $7 billion more.

Lumen shares, which had briefly been trading below $1 in June, are now up 500% from that low.


See also: How Lumen transformed from a 99-cent stock into the latest AI craze


Part of that enthusiasm came from meme traders, who saw momentum in a stock that had been a popular play among short sellers. “There were some fun parts” to being a meme stock, Stansbury told MarketWatch last week.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve done a lot of hard work and with not a lot of positive news around it,” Stansbury said. “The debt, cutting the dividend and whatnot. So to be in a position for a little while where people could celebrate the bigger Lumen team working around the clock to transform the company … it was great.”

But Stansbury doesn’t see the excitement as a flash-in-the-pan meme moment. Rather, he’s betting that Lumen will be able to continue to take advantage of the growing need for connectivity, especially in the AI era.


“There’s a race among the tech companies to get those algorithms trained, because there’s obviously a first-mover advantage there,” he explained. That means “a huge need for high-speed, low-latency connectivity between all these data centers.”

He says that while the market has paid attention to data centers and power grids themselves, “there hasn’t been a lot of conversation about the connectivity piece, and so that’s what’s driving this today.”

Lumen still faces skeptics. FactSet lists only one bullish sell-side analyst covering the stock, out of 15 total, and they’re not from a major bank. Four of those covering analysts hold sell ratings.


Stansbury says that Lumen has taken a different approach than its peers and thinks that could be why sell-side analysts, who also cover those rivals, aren’t buying into Lumen’s strategy.

“Everyone else that we compete with is looking at the enterprise space as commoditized and one that should be managed for cash,” he said.

Analysts seem similarly sour on the enterprise market, but Stansbury thinks Lumen’s contrarian approach could pay off.


“From a competitive opportunity standpoint, as we continue to execute on this, we’re not facing resistance from others, and the value that we’re bringing to to customers is significant,” he said.

The AI deals are allowing Lumen to address its steep debt burden, even though some on Wall Street are doubtful they’ll lead to meaningful revenue opportunities beyond the upfront payments. Gregory Williams of TD Cowen wrote back in July that the arrangements “may not move the needle much” on metrics like revenue or adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

MarketWatch caught up with Stansbury while he was in New York for a Bank of America conference, and he’s noticed a shift in the mood nowadays when he addresses investors. Before, Lumen conference presentations were dominated by debt talk. Now, investors want to hear about business strategy.

That goes beyond AI. Lumen plays into the trend of getting fiber to the home, and it’s been growing its footprint recently. Now, consumer fiber is an increasingly trendy part of the telecommunications sector — as evidenced in part by Verizon Communications Inc.’s VZ announcement last week that it intends to scoop up Frontier Communications Parent Inc. FYBR in a $20 billion deal.

See also: Verizon plans big fiber bet with $20 billion Frontier deal. Does it make sense?

“We believe that’s validation that what we’ve been saying all along is accurate,” Stansbury said. And with “more and more consolidation activity” in the market, he thinks there will be growing interest in Lumen’s consumer-fiber assets

Sure is… anybody find this article about Verizon again? It’s Apple news and I can’t read the whole article cause I don’t subscribe to Apple news.

A Lumen executive talks
Al, Verizon's fiber deal - and meme-stock status

Recent SEC filing indicates Doug Hagman now owns 55,000,000 shares of LUMN. His net worth is estimated at $400,000,000.00, I think he runs Jackson Financial.

Yep, I see why LUMN is rising. Insider James Fowler recently purchased 10,000 shares at $4.60. Thats a good indication where things are headed 🍷

Zacks had an article on the 10th and recommended current shareholders stay the course. Have a feeling many new shareholders getting in. 🍷

Going to be a nice steady climb in the coming weeks IMHO

Can anyone see the latest news from the Wall Street Journal?

I can only see the heading or part of it:

“Lumen technologies bets on AI deal to……”

Compared to Friday

Higher low/higher high close coming imo

Verizon Deal does an all cash deal for Frontier (FYBR) @ $20B;
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/verizon-buy-frontier-communications-20b-134201303.html

Frontier has 249M shares OS, so, my question is why is the share price @ $35 range? I calced $80 per share?

Interesting link showing Lumens Network Maps across the world. There's a cool dropdown feature as well;
https://www.lumen.com/en-us/resources/network-maps.html

Wouldn't a Big company like Amazon or Microsoft love to get their hands on Lumens Network?
Kate isn't about to sell this Gem!!

Conversely; Wouldn’t it be great to learn who the other 90% of Dow Cornings fiber customers are?

As for the FTTH (fiber to the home) customers, it would appear that ATT and VZ are concentrating their efforts in this arena. Leaving the Data Centers (AI) wide open for competition. This will be Lumens forte’. This I believe is Kate Johnson’s master plan. Build the railroads, superhighways, shipping lanes. Leaving the FTTH space (the last mile) to those willing to slug it out with ATT and VZ.

When speaking about fiber optic buildouts, you have to ask yourself the following questions;
1. Who’s contracting 10% of Dow Cornings fiber optic manufacturing for the next 2 years? A huge infrastructure upgrade.
2. Who has sold a large portion of its internet service in order to pay off debt and concentrate on the larger network providers?
3. Whose mantra is it that says we will be changing the internet forever?

The Barrons article although enlightening, has not really given credibility to Kate Johnson and the “Turnaround” strategy.

The article has given a boost to today’s stock price no doubt.

IMHO Kate Johnson is not the type of CEO to take a $14.50 buyout offer from anyone. The fiber optic infrastructure is much too valuable. LUMN has approximately 1B shares outstanding. $14.50 would equate to $14-15B buyout offer. Lumens network is much more valuable than that for the future of the internet and AI.

$50B would be a more suitable offer. Think of Lumen as the Will Rogers Turnpike. I remember as kids driving to Chicago and paying a toll on one of Americas first toll roads. Then there’s the Turner Turnpike. Now there’s toll roads all over the country making lots of $$$. This is Lumens strategy and it’s a great idea.
Good luck to all,

Yep. A writer at Barron's suggested LUMN could add more customers, and along i with Frontier, it would give Verizon a presence in 43 states. I think $14.50/share would be a good price, I don't want to be too greedy. Have an excellent weekend MightyX. 🍷

Based only on Frontier getting an offer?

Speculation is our LUMN may be a buyout candidate. I've always thought that was a strong possibility, which has me still hanging on to a boat load of free shares despite the choppy waters we some times face here.

Starting to fill the gap up to eternity

And upcoming back over $6

Awesome week!!!

Up nearly 7% on 20m volume…roughly 10min to closing.

Big f-u to all the dummy emotional-influence-attempts against shareholders

Down 2% on just 100k volume after hours

Up 2% on 20million volume.

Been scraping my house since before noon, wow nice surprise here !

Big fat facepalm … every time I sell insurance it literally triggers a run lol

I wouldn’t 😂 not this week, sold the Friday calls 😵 course it POPPED up 30min later

Would like to see $8 intraday in the coming days.

Let’s close above $6 today!

Up 13% on 20m volume so far

$5.25 breakout heading to $6.25

Bullish harami?

Great job, bro!

Glad I increased my position on the drop

Will see $7+ soon enough

Lotta tickers charts look like LUMN..not a coincidence imo

Market dropping price in case new-shares enter imo

Siemens AG stock traded on OTCMKT: SIEGY. Siemens/Xelerator supply cooling systems for Data Centers.

Cooling-demand for data centers increasing..another avenue for investors wanting to diversify in this booming sector.

Considering that about 55% of todays selling volume was Shorting...stock held up nicely...and projects a favorable future, IMO

Good weekend, all...

Not a bad day. Gotta hold $5 and keep it above

Up 1.5% to close on bullish volume(well below 20m for the day)

Up 1% after 11million volume, under 15min remain

Will see if retail hits $9 after hours again.

Trading flat after 9million..heading into final hour

Up 1% after 6 million

Up 1% on first million traded

We know Lumen is best kept secret on wall street

$6.75 coming sooner than later

Nice article by Motley Fool on LUMN this morning. I read it on Yahoo Finance on LUMN quote page. Have a good weekend all.

Uptrend since $3.75 breakout continues