Lumen Technologies Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:LUMN)

Key Points

• Investors showed strong interest in Lumen Technologies, purchasing 22,530 call options, a 42% increase over the typical daily volume.
• Lumen reported an EPS of ($0.03), outperforming the consensus estimate of ($0.24), but its quarterly revenue decreased by 5.4% year-over-year.
• Recently, CEO Kathleen E. Johnson and CFO Christopher Stansbury made significant insider purchases, acquiring 135,870 and 42,000 shares, respectively.

Lumen Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:LUMN - Get Free Report) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders bought 22,530 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 42% compared to the average daily volume of 15,902 call options.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Christopher Stansbury bought 42,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $4.29 per share, for a total transaction of $180,180.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 518,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,222,220. This trade represents a 8.82% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Kathleen E. Johnson purchased 135,870 shares of Lumen Technologies stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $3.69 per share, with a total value of $501,360.30. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer owned 9,616,947 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,486,534.43. This trade represents a 1.43% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders acquired 217,870 shares of company stock valued at $859,140. 2.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lumen Technologies

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new position in Lumen Technologies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $953,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in Lumen Technologies by 182.3% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,589,213 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $8,439,000 after buying an additional 1,026,248 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc acquired a new position in Lumen Technologies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,082,000. Ethic Inc. acquired a new position in Lumen Technologies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $120,000. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth increased its stake in Lumen Technologies by 922.5% in the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 174,505 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $927,000 after buying an additional 157,439 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.19% of the company's stock.

Lumen Technologies Trading Down 4.9%

Shares of LUMN stock traded down $0.29 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $5.57. 8,025,022 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,612,760. Lumen Technologies has a 1-year low of $3.01 and a 1-year high of $10.33. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $4.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $4.27. The company has a quick ratio of 2.13, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 59.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.71 billion, a PE ratio of -4.72 and a beta of 1.42.

Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The technology company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.21. Lumen Technologies had a negative net margin of 9.19% and a negative return on equity of 158.40%. The business had revenue of $3.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.13) earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Lumen Technologies will post -0.87 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James Financial upped their price target on shares of Lumen Technologies from $4.50 to $5.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Lumen Technologies in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $4.10 price target for the company. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Lumen Technologies from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, August 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Lumen Technologies to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $5.14.

Lumen Technologies Company Profile

Lumen Technologies, Inc, a facilities-based technology and communications company, provides various integrated products and services to business and residential customers in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Business and Mass Markets. It offers dark fiber, edge cloud services, internet protocol, managed security, software-defined wide area networks, secure access service edge, unified communications and collaboration, and optical wavelengths services; ethernet and VPN data networks services; and legacy services to manage cash flow, including time division multiplexing voice, private line, and other legacy services, as well as sells communication equipment, and IT solutions.