Lumen Technologies, Inc LUMN 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. On a pro forma basis, quarterly total revenues declined 6% year over year to $4,328 million. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for top line was pegged at $4,413 million.After the completion of the sale of its Latin America business in August, the company completed the sale of its 20-state ILEC business to Apollo in October. The company also announced the sale of its Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) business to Colt Technology Services for $1.8 billion.The company has also canceled dividend payments for the fourth quarter of 2022 but announced a $1.5 billion share repurchase plan to be executed over a two-year period.Following the announcement, shares declined 15% in aftermarket trading on Nov 2.Lumen Technologies, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Lumen Technologies, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Lumen Technologies, Inc. QuoteSegment PerformanceBy segment, on a pro forma basis, Business revenues fell 5% to $3.155 million. IGAM revenues declined 6% year over year to $789 million. Revenues from Large Enterprise fell 10% to $844 million due to a contract ending at the beginning of the third quarter. Mid-Market Enterprise revenues fell 5% to $618 million. Revenues in Wholesale were up 1% to $904 million.Revenues from Mass Markets, on a pro forma basis, declined 7% year over year to $1.173 million due to a fall in CAF II revenues.Lumen anticipates witnessing healthy momentum in Quantum business in the upcoming quarters. The company added 31,000 Quantum fiber subscribers, taking the count to 889,000 Quantum fiber subscribers in the reported quarter. Total “enablements” were nearly 210,000, with 195,000 of these enabled locations in the company’s 16 retained states. As of Sep 30, the total enabled locations in the retained states stood at 3 million.Other Quarterly DetailsTotal operating expenses declined 20% year over year to $3 billion, primarily due to lower depreciation and amortization expenses and cost of services and products.Operating income was $1.384 billion, up 22% from the prior-year quarter’s levels. Adjusted EBITDA (excluding special items) slipped to $1.688 billion from $2.078 billion for respective margins of 38.5% and 42.5%, owing to the closure of the CAF II program in 2021.Cash Flow & LiquidityIn the third quarter, Lumen generated $1.123 billion of net cash from operations compared with $1.73 billion a year ago.Free cash flow (excluding cash special items) for the year was $620 million compared with $1.072 billion in the year-ago quarter.As of Sep 30, the company had $252 million in cash and cash equivalents with $21,764 million of long-term debt compared with the respective figures of $360 million and $27,965 million as of Jun 30.2022 ViewFor 2022, Lumen continues to expect adjusted EBITDA in the range of $6.9-$7.1 billion. Free cash flow is projected to be between $2.2 billion and $2.4 billion compared with the earlier range of $2-2.2 billion.Capital expenditures are estimated between $3 billion and $3.2 billion compared with the earlier range of $3.2-3.4 billion. The effective income tax rate for the full year is estimated to be nearly 26%.Zacks Rank & Stocks to ConsiderLumen currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).Some better-ranked stocks from the broader technology space are Pure Storage PSTG, Blackbaud BLKB and Cadence Design Systems CDNS. All stocks presently carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Pure Storage’s 2022 earnings is pegged at $1.18 per share, up 24.2% in the past 60 days. The long-term earnings growth rate is anticipated to be 35.5%.Pure Storage’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the last four quarters, the average being 171.8%. Shares of PSTG have lost 12.9% in the past year.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Blackbaud’s 2022 earnings is pegged at $2.55 per share, unchanged in the past 60 days. The long-term earnings growth rate is anticipated to be 3%.Blackbaud’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the last four quarters, the average being 4.9%. Shares of BLKB have lost 33.7% in the past year.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cadence’s 2022 earnings is pegged at $4.22 per share, up 2.7% in the past 60 days. The long-term earnings growth rate is anticipated to be 17.7%. CDNS’ earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters, the average being 10.4%. Shares of CDNS have lost 19.2% in the past year. Zacks Names "Single Best Pick to Double" From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all. It’s a little-known chemical company that’s up 65% over last year, yet still dirt cheap. With unrelenting demand, soaring 2022 earnings estimates, and $1.5 billion for repurchasing shares, retail investors could jump in at any time. This company could rival or surpass other recent Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Boston Beer Company which shot up +143.0% in little more than 9 months and NVIDIA which boomed +175.9% in one year.Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners UpWant the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Blackbaud, Inc. (BLKB): Free Stock Analysis Report Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (CDNS): Free Stock Analysis Report Pure Storage, Inc. (PSTG): Free Stock Analysis Report Lumen Technologies, Inc. (LUMN): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research