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With 450,000 route miles of fiber, Lumen Technologies is one of the United States’ largest telecommunications carriers serving global enterprises. Its merger with Level 3 in 2017 and divestiture of much of its incumbent local exchange carrier, or ILEC, business in 2022 has shifted the company’s operations away from its legacy consumer business and toward enterprises (now about 75% of revenue). Lumen offers businesses a full menu of communications services, providing colocation and data center services, data transportation, and end-user phone and internet service. On the consumer side, Lumen provides broadband and phone service across 37 states, where it has 4.5 million broadband customers.

The Walt Disney Co. is a global entertainment company. The company owns and leverages well-known brands, ranging from Mickey Mouse and 'Frozen' to ESPN and ABC. Disney acquired the animated movie producer Pixar Animation Studios in 2006, comic book and movie producer Marvel Entertainment in 2010, 'Star Wars' originator Lucasfilm in 2012, streaming video technology platform BAMTech (now Disney Streaming Services) in 2017, the assets of 21st Century Fox in March 2019, most of Hulu in May 2019, and the final piece of Hulu in November, 2023. Disney derives 24% of its revenue from outside of North America and 12% from Europe.

Stocks are falling to end the week. Catalysts appear to be some 'exuberance exhaustion,' a seemingly more-hawkish Fed, and the tug of war over sectors that might benefit and sectors that might be hurt as the possible players in the Trump administration start to be known. On the plus side, retail sales data released today painted a picture of a resilient U.S. consumer heading into the all-important holiday spending season.

The Vickers Top Insider Picks is a daily report that utilizes a proprietary algorithm to identify 25 companies with compelling insider purchase histories based on transactions over the past three months.