Wells upgrades Lumen to Equal Weight into potential Quantum sale

Wells Fargo analyst Eric Luebchow upgraded Lumen (LUMN) to Equal Weight from Underweight with an unchanged price target of $5. The firm says the potential for a free cash flow accretive and deleveraging sale of Quantum Fiber, coupled with continued private connectivity fabric sales, improves the near-term outlook for Lumen. Future private connectivity fabric could continue to boost the company’s free cash flow while the Quantum Fiber sale could provide an upside catalyst, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Wells finds it “increasingly challenging” to be Underweight the shares into the potential Quantum sale or carve-out.