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US enterprise and consumer telecom (formerly CenturyLink) providing fiber networking, cloud connectivity and legacy voice/broadband.
US enterprise and consumer telecom (formerly CenturyLink) providing fiber networking, cloud connectivity and legacy voice/broadband.
Sells network capacity and services to large businesses and governments under multi-year contracts, plus fibre capacity to data-centre operators, while older copper-based voice and broadband lines keep shrinking. Since 2022 it has sold its Latin American and European businesses and a large part of its local phone-line territories.
Moat: narrow (installed base, switching costs). Large legacy fiber/copper footprint, now repositioning around hyperscaler/AI fiber demand.
Headquarters: Denver, Colorado, USA · Founded: 1968 · Employees: 24,000
Size Lumen Technologies (LUMN) is a United States Communication Services company (Major Telecommunications) with a market value of $4.12B, the 1331st largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $3.99 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 59.3%, against -7.9% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — lowest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 7.7% over the last twelve months (peer median +4.3%); the operating margin is -3.1% (peer median 9.6%).
Valuation It trades at 1.3× enterprise value to sales against a peer median of 2.6× (4th cheapest of 21).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 5% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is -10%, so the hurdle is +15 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 10.4 points below its cost of capital (7.6% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $6.10B at 30 Sep 2026, up 3% on a year earlier — 0.5 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Short interest Short interest is 6.2% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 9 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $11.8B | $12.4B | $13.1B | $14.6B | $17.5B |
| Revenue growth | — | -5% | -10% | -17% | — |
| Gross profit | $2.98B | $3.02B | $3.45B | $4.43B | $6.37B |
| EBITDA | $2.31B | $2.56B | $3.43B | $4.21B | $6.53B |
| Net income | -$1.02B | -$1.74B | -$55.0M | -$10.3B | -$1.55B |
| Free cash flow | $837M | $371M | $1.10B | -$940M | $1.72B |
| Capital expenditure | $4.53B | $4.37B | $3.23B | $3.10B | $3.02B |
| Total debt | $13.5B | $18.8B | $19.1B | $21.3B | $22.0B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | EV / Sales | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lumen Technologies LUMN | $4.12B | -59% | -8% | -3% | 1.3× | 5.1% |
| AT&T T | $146B | -14% | +4% | 22% | 2.6× | -4.8% |
| Verizon VZ | $189B | -3% | +1% | 24% | 2.7× | -7.2% |
| Charter Communications CHTR | $20.8B | -24% | -2% | 24% | 2.2× | -8.5% |
| Comcast CMCSA | $86.6B | -3% | 0% | 15% | 1.4× | -6.4% |
| Cogent Communications CCOI | n/a | -76% | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Uniti UNIT | $1.27B | -54% | +200% | 10% | 3.3× | n/a |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | LUMN | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -28.2% | +2.8% | 2nd lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -59.3% | -7.9% | lowest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -65.2% | -19.5% | lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -7.7% | +4.3% | 3rd lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | -3.1% | 9.6% | 2nd lowest of 21 |
| EV / Sales | 1.3× | 2.6× | 4th cheapest of 21 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 5.1% | 0.8% | 4th most demanding of 17 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | -9.7% | +3.1% | lowest of 17 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +14.8 pp | -4.5 pp | 2nd most demanding of 17 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -10.4 pp | -0.4 pp | 2nd lowest of 20 |
| EV / EBITDA | 6.8× | 8.6× | 6th cheapest of 18 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 5.0× | 2.5× | 5th most indebted of 18 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | EV / Sales | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lumen Technologies LUMN | United States | $4.12B | -59% | -8% | -3% | 1.3× | 5.1% | -9.7% |
| Internet Initiative Japan 3774.T | Japan | $4.05B | +30% | +14% | 9% | 1.9× | 2.3% | +10.2% |
| Telecom Argentina SA Sponsored ADR TEO | United States | $4.87B | -16% | +33% | 9% | 1.2× | 4.1% | +8.4% |
| PCCW 0008.HK | Hong Kong | $5.04B | -17% | +7% | 13% | 2.8× | 1.2% | +2.3% |
| Tata Communications TATACOMM.NS | India | $5.15B | +7% | +9% | 8% | 2.4× | 34.1% | +7.7% |
| Liberty Global LBTYA | United States | $3.28B | -19% | -27% | -1% | 4.2× | n/a | n/a |
| LG Uplus 032640.KS | South Korea | $5.17B | +6% | 0% | 7% | 0.5× | -17.5% | +2.9% |
| United Internet UTDI.DE | Germany | $5.17B | -9% | -8% | 9% | 1.5× | 1.4% | +2.7% |
| NetLink NBN Trust CJLU.SI | Singapore | $2.87B | -7% | 0% | 22% | 11.0× | 16.0% | +2.3% |
| ITI ITI.NS | India | $2.53B | -18% | -41% | -1% | 11.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Eutelsat Communications ETL.PA | France | $2.40B | -40% | -1% | -6% | 2.9× | n/a | n/a |
| IDT IDT | United States | $2.18B | +54% | +5% | 9% | 1.4× | 5.7% | -2.2% |
| KT 030200.KS | South Korea | $9.46B | -12% | +9% | 7% | 0.8× | -4.1% | +3.4% |
| Liberty Latin America LILA | United States | $1.73B | +72% | +1% | 17% | 2.3× | 0.5% | +3.4% |
| Tele2 TEL2-A.ST | Sweden | $11.2B | -14% | +2% | 24% | 4.5× | -2.4% | +2.4% |
| HKT Trust and HKT 6823.HK | Hong Kong | $11.9B | -2% | +7% | 22% | 3.7× | -3.1% | +2.4% |
| Quebecor QBR-B.TO | Canada | $12.3B | +36% | +3% | 27% | 4.2× | 0.4% | +5.6% |
| Guangdong South New Media 300770.SZ | China | $1.37B | +7% | -6% | 37% | 4.6× | -1.5% | +5.9% |
| Gamma Communications GAMA.L | United Kingdom | $1.32B | +23% | +7% | 15% | 1.5× | -0.4% | +10.4% |
| Uniti UNIT | United States | $1.27B | -54% | +200% | 10% | 3.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Grupo Televisa, S.A.B. Sponsored ADR TV | United States | $1.24B | -18% | +6% | 11% | 1.4× | 1.1% | -7.5% |
Lumen Technologies reported $6.10B of remaining performance obligations at 30 Sep 2026, up 3% from a year earlier and up 3% from the previous quarter. That is 0.5 years of trailing revenue already under contract. Book-to-bill last quarter: 1.07.