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Lumen (LUMN) Continues to Expand Fiber Network Across U.S.

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Lumen Technologies (LUMN - Free Report) has announced an investment to expand the company’s fiber line by 6 million miles. This is expected to be installed by 2026.

The current development of fiber systems is aimed at taping the growing demand for fast data transfer between different continents in real-time. The ongoing digitalization and bandwidth explosion have made data flow very crucial. The company wants to develop an ultra-low-loss fiber network to meet rising fiber needs.

Lumen is using a multi-conduit system along with the latest Corning's SMF-28 ULL fiber and SMF-28 Ultra fiber to update its infrastructure and minimize the time for fiber deployment.

The current fiber deployment will take the company’s U.S. intercity connectivity to nearly 12 million fiber miles which will help to create diverse routes to approximately 50 key cities across the nation.

The company has updated more than 24,000 route miles in its intercity network in the United States. It also supports the adoption of its Next-Generation Optical platform to handle the rising network traffic and improve network performance levels.

The fiber deployment offers wavelength services up to 400G, which offers reliable and low-latency network infrastructure. Customers can also meet their bandwidth needs and analyze their data in real-time.

Customers can also leverage the Topology Viewer application to build and design their customized networks.

The company continues to invest heavily in research and development to modernize digital experiences, meet the requirements of enterprises and improve customer experience.

Previously, the company announced investing in a fiber pair on a subsea cable system - Grace Hopper - developed by Alphabet Inc. The system will leverage Lumen’s landing station and infrastructure services to provide data transfer facilities between New York and Bude, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom.

Lumen anticipates witnessing healthy momentum in Quantum’s business in the upcoming quarters. The company added 31,000 Quantum fiber subscribers, taking the count to 889,000 Quantum fiber subscribers in the third quarter.

For the fourth quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues stands at $3.86 billion, down 20.5% year over year. Also, the consensus mark for earnings is pegged at 18 cents per share, down 64.7% year over year.

Lumen reported adjusted earnings (excluding special items) of 14 cents per share for third-quarter 2022 compared with 49 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. The bottom line missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 61.1%.

Quarterly total revenues dropped 10.2% year over year to $4,390 million. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the top line is pegged at $4,413 million.

Lumen currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Shares of the company have lost 56.1% compared with the industry’s decline of 59.9% in the past year.

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Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader technology space are Arista Networks (ANET - Free Report) , Plexus (PLXS - Free Report) and Super Micro Computer (SMCI - Free Report) , each presently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Arista Networks 2022 earnings is pegged at $4.37 per share, up 8.2% in the past 60 days. The long-term earnings growth rate is anticipated to be 17.5%.

Arista Networks’ earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the last four quarters, the average being 12.7%. Shares of ANET have jumped 9.2% in the past year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Plexus 2023 earnings is pegged at $5.98 per share, rising 8.9% in the past 60 days.

Plexus’ earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters, the average being 17.5%. Shares of PLXS have gained 16.7% in the past year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Super Micro Computer’s fiscal 2023 earnings is pegged at $9.58 per share, rising 27.7% in the past 60 days.

Super Micro Computer’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all of the last four quarters, the average being 9.4%. Shares of SMCI have soared 95.1% in the past year.

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