Earnings Sentiment

Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.

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Sentiment Distribution

   

Earnings Call Transcript Word Cloud

     

Bullish Statements during Earnings call

Statement
So we're pleased, we're excited and, the fact that that the broader market, and it was the broader market we were negotiating with supported this in a very tough credit environment
And we strongly felt that driving the numerator, EBITDA was a much faster path to long-term success than just simply managing the denominator
What's the best way to drive returns and what's the best way to improve leverage
It's far more powerful, far more flexible for the user, is really unparalleled
Network-as-a-Service sort of in a separate piece showing growth of 20% CAGR, which did a great job of laying out Lumen's right to win in those segments
It's more, what we announced a year ago where we're investing heavily on fixing the inside of Lumen so that we can bring a better customer experience
That'd be fantastic context
And, it's great to be with everybody, and that's -- that was a great way to say it
And that's where we see the greater return
So the ability to sit on the most modern network, move data very flexibly, really at your fingertips and very quickly and securely, that's the big unlock
We have a great asset
As I think about the, so, you're investing CapEx and enterprise against 10-year contracts, and you get a good return on that
Our ability to deliver NaaS, frankly, at a much deeper layer in the network
Here's what's on the truck today and how those rates of sales are improving, and here's the innovation that ultimately comes in behind that
We're already relying less on legacy and investing in the future, and that's why we're performing better, but still not where we need to be
There's, I think, a lot of improvement we can continue to drive in the shape of our maturity curve, and that'll be a focus as we see opportunities for it
So, as we were executing the turnaround, which we're making great progress on, ultimately, the debt had the potential to be a limiting factor, just given where the credit markets were
But I would also say it's a better way
But the ultimate objective there is to continue to build value in that asset and when the time is right, right rate now, if there's not a lot going on, obviously, with the capital markets the way they are, then, that'll be a very attractive asset for somebody, and then we can double down on the enterprise
There's no way to understate it because it clears the path, it gives us the financing we need, and it frankly puts a lot more confidence in the marketplace that we've now got time to do it
And what we intend to bring the market is deep visibility inside of enterprise
And so, yes, we believe the business, with the innovation, with the lead we already have, will pivot well in advance of any refinances we have to do
So, the execution of the TSA is a major milestone for us
It's a good place to sit right now
And, public sector, we said would be the first to return to growth, and that's because we've won a lot of really big contracts that we've made announcements around really over the last 18 months or so
Now in the consumer space, again, a great business that because of the long payback cycles, that is a sector that's screaming for consolidation
We see the incremental revenue
So before the TSA, Chris, you did a big reset in June, where you projected a return to growth in revenue and EBITDA in '25 with EBITDA accelerating to sort of 9% two years later
And so that that really speaks to just how rapidly this is scaling
My goal is by giving you the pieces, you'll be able to see that more clearly because the EBITDA growth is coming from, those growth products we have today as well as the innovation portfolio that follows, as well as any kind of big dark fiber infrastructure deals we do
       

Bearish Statements during earnings call

Statement
And it sort of you've where '24 guidance has come in has been a little bit below the original plan, I think largely as a result of that
So, NaaS is a good example where there are NaaS providers out there, but when you dig into their underlying results, they're struggling, and they're struggling because they have to go buy network from us and from others
And you sort of, in the interim, had challenges before executing the TSA where some customers were concerned about liquidity
And when you look at their results, and we talked about this on Q4 earnings, they're down 8% to 10%
They were concerned about, our focus, right? And with the debt overhang combined with the credit markets and the formation of the group ultimately take us down a path of distraction where delivery against what they need from us would be challenged
Jonathan Chaplin By the way, I heard a stunning stat yesterday from one of our speakers pertaining to really the old legacy business, at Lumen, which is they're starting to see forward purchases for long haul circuits from cloud providers, who are worried that with the growth and demand they're seeing from AI in particular, that there's not going to be enough infrastructure in the ground to satisfy demand, in 3 or 4 years' time
But it's really the decline of a legacy business
In the same quarter, we were down 3.5%
The conversations were difficult
So that's really what the overhang was, and we saw it impact sale rates in the back half of last year, and we talked about that as a reason for the lower guidance as we came into this year
If the customer concerns ran the full gamut, right? So, smaller, less financially sophisticated customers, were concerned about, our longevity
We would miss the customer delivery day 3 or 4 times
And it failed because there was never an effort to fix the process before they automated it
Much harder for us to see it in business where the overall revenues aren't growing at the moment
You have data getting further and further away from where it needs to be, and latency in today's world becomes a real problem
And so it's an impossible thing to scale
In aggregate, it's declining
Consumer is down, business is up
It's really, it's a fight for the consumer
So you have data needs exploding
   

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