Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN)

Lumen Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:LUMN) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Investors acquired 32,015 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 104% compared to the average daily volume of 15,662 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on LUMN. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Lumen Technologies from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Lumen Technologies from $8.50 to $7.25 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Lumen Technologies in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Lumen Technologies from $10.00 to $8.25 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Lumen Technologies from $9.00 to $7.50 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lumen Technologies presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $7.86.

Lumen Technologies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE LUMN traded down $0.01 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $5.59. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 22,403,881 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,550,355. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.49 and a beta of 1.78. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $6.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.45. Lumen Technologies has a 1 year low of $5.38 and a 1 year high of $11.95.

Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The technology company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.74 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.03) earnings per share. Lumen Technologies’s quarterly revenue was down 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Lumen Technologies will post -0.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lumen Technologies

In related news, CEO Kathleen Johnson purchased 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $6.13 per share, for a total transaction of $613,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $613,000. The trade was a ? increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in Lumen Technologies by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 142,261,845 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,092,571,000 after purchasing an additional 4,796,141 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Lumen Technologies by 4.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,003,189 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $368,664,000 after buying an additional 1,990,860 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Lumen Technologies during the fourth quarter worth approximately $106,557,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Lumen Technologies by 1.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,994,640 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $104,156,000 after buying an additional 144,664 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Lumen Technologies by 87.2% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 10,489,367 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $80,558,000 after acquiring an additional 4,886,999 shares in the last quarter. 66.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Lumen Technologies

Lumen Technologies, Inc is a telecommunications and technology company that provides connectivity, networking, cloud, security and communications services to businesses, government organizations and other customers. Its offerings include fiber-based internet access, wide-area networking, software-defined networking, managed network services, cybersecurity, voice and unified communications, and data center and edge-computing solutions.

The company also serves residential customers in selected U.S.