Why Lumen Stock Fell Today After First Posting Big Gains

Lumen (NYSE: LUMN) stock ended Friday's trading in the red despite posting big gains early in the session. The telecommunications company's share price ended the day down 0.5%, even though it had been up as much as 7.9%.

Lumen got a big valuation boost early in today's trading thanks to an analyst's ratings upgrade, but it couldn't hold on to the gains. The stock moved lower as the day progressed and investors weighed macroeconomic indicators signaling emerging risk factors.

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Lumen stock couldn't hold on to its gains as macro risks took the spotlight

Before the market opened this morning, Wells Fargo published new coverage of Lumen. Eric Luebchow, the firm's lead analyst on the company, raised his rating from underweight to equal weight and maintained a one-year price target of $5 per share.

As of this writing, Luebchow's price target suggests upside potential of roughly 7%. The analyst thinks the sale of the company's Quantum Fiber division and new contract wins for Private Connectivity Fabric offerings could help improve the company's debt position and generate new free cash flow.

Despite big gains early in trading, shares retreated as macroeconomic risk factors increasingly shaped market action. Today saw the release of a new batch of data for the U.S. economy, and most of the indicators pointed in a bearish direction.

Tracking from the University of Michigan showed that consumer confidence weakened in January, and existing home sales saw a bigger-than-expected decline in the month. Tracking from S&P Global also showed weaker-than-anticipated performance for the manufacturing and service sectors this month.

What's next for Lumen?

With today's pullback, Lumen stock is now down roughly 12% across 2025's trading. On the other hand, the company's share price has risen by more than 200% over the last year.

The big gains have largely been powered by sales of the company's Private Connectivity Fabric technologies, with Microsoft and Meta Platforms making purchases from the company to support their artificial intelligence (AI) data center initiatives. Poor performance in other areas of the business, combined with a high debt load, continues to make Lumen a risky stock. However, the emergence of AI-related sales catalysts suggests significant upside potential if the business continues to score contracts for Private Connectivity Fabric.

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Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.