Forensic Analysis · Wireline & Integrated Carriers · as of Nov 9, 2026
Lumen Technologies, Inc. (LUMN)
A forensic read on Lumen Technologies, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-5.4%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Lumen Technologies, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-2.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -2.2% in the latest fiscal year, against -26.7% in FY2023, having run between -26.7% and 1.3% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($7.6B) in FY2023 and ($641M) in FY2025, with operating income at -65.8% of revenue in FY2023, 3.5% in FY2024 and -6.5% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $28.4B in FY2023 to $28.7B in FY2025 (+1%), while the revenue it carried went from $14.6B to $12.4B. Across FY2024–FY2025, $7.6B went into capital expenditure against $3.6B of depreciation excluding $2.1B of intangible-asset amortisation. The base is struck net of amortisation, write-downs and the current liabilities that fund it, so it moved by less than that spending net of the wear, and this row does not say which of those absorbed the difference. FY2023's operating profit carried a $10.7B goodwill write-off that took about 29.7 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $628M goodwill write-off that took about 1.7 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges add about 28.0 points to the +24.5-point change across FY2023–FY2025. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
$11.3B
FY2023–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $11.3B of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2023 ($10.7B), FY2025 ($628M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-73%
FY2023→FY2024
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~73% in FY2024 (from FY2023). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$12.40B
Revenue Growth YoY-5.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-7.7%
Net Margin-14.0%
Free Cash Flow$371.0M
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Lumen Technologies, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?