Qwest
Through the investors’ lenses
Each of these investors has said in public what they look at before buying. Click a name to see how this company measures up — a tick where it passes one of their tests, a cross where it does not.
Warren Buffett 1/4
| Measure | CTGG | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner earnings | $-1.07bn | positive | ✗ |
| Return on equity | -7.7% | median 11.7% | ✗ |
| Debt to equity | 0.20x | median 0.79x | ✓ |
| Operating margin | -3.5% | median 15.0% | ✗ |
Passes 1 of 4. To be clear: Warren Buffett has never said anything about Qwest. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Terry Smith 1/3
| Measure | CTGG | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | -1.5% | median 10.1% | ✗ |
| Cash conversion | — | median 1.78x | — |
| Operating margin | -3.5% | median 15.0% | ✗ |
| Debt to equity | 0.20x | median 0.79x | ✓ |
Passes 1 of 3. To be clear: Terry Smith has never said anything about Qwest. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Charlie Munger 0/3
| Measure | CTGG | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | -1.5% | median 10.1% | ✗ |
| Return on equity | -7.7% | median 11.7% | ✗ |
| Operating margin | -3.5% | median 15.0% | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 3. To be clear: Charlie Munger has never said anything about Qwest. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Chuck Akre 2/3
| Measure | CTGG | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on equity | -7.7% | median 11.7% | ✗ |
| Debt to equity | 0.20x | median 0.79x | ✓ |
| Cash conversion | — | median 1.78x | — |
| Return on equity, sustained | 8 of 10 | 8 of 10 above median | ✓ |
Passes 2 of 3. To be clear: Chuck Akre has never said anything about Qwest. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Philip Fisher 0/4
| Measure | CTGG | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating margin | -3.5% | median 15.0% | ✗ |
| Net margin | -14.8% | median 10.2% | ✗ |
| Return on capital employed | -1.5% | median 10.1% | ✗ |
| Operating margin, held or improving | -22.5% | 10-yr median 33.8% | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 4. To be clear: Philip Fisher has never said anything about Qwest. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Walter Schloss 1/2
| Measure | CTGG | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current ratio | 0.44x | median 1.25x | ✗ |
| Debt to equity | 0.20x | median 0.79x | ✓ |
Passes 1 of 2. To be clear: Walter Schloss has never said anything about Qwest. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Benjamin Graham 0/2
| Measure | CTGG | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current ratio | 0.44x | 2.00x published | ✗ |
| Long-term debt to working capital | — | 1.00x published | — |
| Positive earnings, ten years running | 0 yrs | 10 published | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 2. To be clear: Benjamin Graham has never said anything about Qwest. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Joel Greenblatt 0/1
| Measure | CTGG | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | -1.5% | median 10.1% | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 1. To be clear: Joel Greenblatt has never said anything about Qwest. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Peter Lynch 1/2
| Measure | CTGG | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debt to equity | 0.20x | median 0.79x | ✓ |
| Net margin | -14.8% | median 10.2% | ✗ |
Passes 1 of 2. To be clear: Peter Lynch has never said anything about Qwest. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Last usable year: 2023-12-31 — 32 months ago. Nothing filed since gives the figures a payout ratio needs. For a company that once paid, that usually means it stopped.
| Basis | Payout | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | 82.9% | whyBefore capital spending. |
| Free cash flow | 149.2% | whyAfter maintaining the business. |
No GAAP earnings figure is shown. This company does not report the inputs for it in its XBRL filings — capital expenditure, in particular, is often folded into a single investing total rather than tagged on its own. The figure is absent from the filings, not zero, and inventing one from a balance-sheet movement would be a guess dressed as a measurement.
Spread between highest and lowest: 66.3 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 0 / 100 — Not covered. ? Peer standing 0/50Direction 0/30Stability 0/20
Against its own history: 149.2% this year vs 70.3% median over the prior 5. A gap this size is usually a one-off — acquisition, settlement, cyclical trough — not a dividend that stopped being funded. The rating reads the latest year; the table shows the trend.
Free cash flow payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2023-12-31 | 149.2% |
| 2021-12-31 | 25.5% |
| 2020-12-31 | 87.1% |
| 2019-12-31 | 70.3% |
| 2018-12-31 | 46.3% |
| 2017-12-31 | 90.3% |
Coverage worsened sharply this year, 25.5% to 149.2%, after no clear trend before it. One year is not a trend, but it is worth knowing which direction the last one moved.
0% of the 25 communications here pay out more — at the demanding end.
The arithmetic
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $1,980m ÷ operating cash flow $2,389m
- Free cash flow — dividends paid $1,980m ÷ (operating cash flow $2,389m − capex $1,062m)
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-20 · accession 0000068622-26-000005
- 10-K filed 2025-02-20 · accession
0000068622-25-000005
All public at sec.gov — you should not have to take our word for it.
Computed straight from SEC XBRL. A number that looks wrong to you is more useful to us than agreement — tell us.
What the free cash flow payout ratio measures, and where every company here sits on it.
Also on: rated not covered · when it files.
When this changes
Every figure above is recomputed whenever Qwest files. The monthly letter carries what filed, what moved, and one finding computed across every company here.