Lumen’s Little Bounce

Lumen Technologies, that purveyor of fiber optics and dwindling hopes, saw its stock price jump nearly 30% today. A temporary reprieve, naturally. So it goes.

It had taken a beating earlier in the week, after revealing earnings that weren’t quite terrible, but weren’t exactly a parade either. The market, you see, has standards. Mostly unattainable ones.

Then the CEO, Kate Johnson, did something… curious. She bought half a million dollars worth of the stock. Not a bad gesture, really. A little like tossing a life raft to a drowning man, except the ocean is the stock market and the man is, well, everyone with a 401k.

A Half-Million Here, A Half-Million There

The numbers, as always, told a story. Earnings were okay. Revenue was… present. The company projected some cash flow, including a healthy dollop of tax refunds that won’t be repeating themselves. It’s a bit like finding a twenty in an old coat. Nice while it lasts.

Lumen is shedding old businesses, like skin. Legacy products, they call them. Things people used to want. It’s a natural process. Everything decays. But 47% of their enterprise revenue is now from newer stuff, growing at a respectable 7%. Overall revenue still declined, mind you, by 9.5%. But who’s counting?

The stock dipped 17% after the earnings report. A predictable reaction. Then Johnson opened her wallet. 78,685 shares. A small gesture in the grand scheme of things, but a gesture nonetheless. It increased her holdings by 6.8%. Not a fortune, but enough to suggest she believes, or at least wants us to think she believes.

Is There a Point?

The stock is cheap, if you measure things in multiples of free cash flow. A mere 6.4 times. They sold their fiber-to-the-home business to AT&T for $4.8 billion. A tidy sum. They’ll use it to pay down debt. A sensible move. Debt, of course, is the story of our lives.

Debt is down to 3.8 times EBITDA. Still not low, but better. Investors aren’t likely to get excited until they see actual growth. Revenue going up. Profits following suit. A revolutionary concept, really.

If that happens, Johnson’s purchase might look like a stroke of genius. A prescient move. Lumen is a risky play, naturally. But it has potential. Especially if these AI-oriented networking solutions catch on. If not, well… so it goes.

2026-02-07 00:34

A Half-Million Here, A Half-Million There

Is There a Point?

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