Why Lumen Stock Is Jumping Today

Lumen (NYSE: LUMN) stock is posting big gains in Wednesday's trading. The company's share price was up 5.5% as of 3 p.m. ET. Earlier in the day, Lumen stock had been up as much as 16%.

Lumen stock is gaining ground today following bullish analyst coverage. The company's share price is also getting a lift from momentum for artificial intelligence (AI) stocks ahead of Nvidia's Q4 report.

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Lumen stock surges on new bullish coverage

Citi published new coverage on Lumen before the market opened this morning, upgrading its rating on the stock from neutral to buy. The firm also set a one-year price target of $6.50 per share on the stock, suggesting additional upside of roughly 39% as of this writing.

Citi expects that Lumen will continue to benefit from private-connectivity-fabric sales to support AI infrastructure expansion for cloud hyperscalers, including Microsoft and Meta Platforms. Citi's analysts also see opportunities for Lumen to continue reducing costs and improve performance for consumer-facing service offerings.

Lumen stock is also seeing some bullish support as investors warm back up to Nvidia and other AI plays ahead of the hardware leader's fourth-quarter report later today. Nvidia's Q4 print and forward guidance will likely have a meaningful impact on valuations in the broader AI space.

What's next for Lumen?

Even after today's gains, Lumen's stock is down roughly 12% across 2025's trading. On the other hand, the company's share price is up roughly 448% over the last year.

Lumen's network technologies wins to support AI data centers have helped power explosive gains for the stock, but there's some debate about what the company's outlook in the space looks like. While the stock will likely continue to see high levels of volatility in the near term, it looks like some promising growth catalysts are still on the horizon.

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Citigroup is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Microsoft and Nvidia. 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.