CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on CNO. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of CNO Financial Group from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of CNO Financial Group from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $27.00.

CNO Financial Group Stock Performance

CNO Financial Group stock opened at $25.42 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $26.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a current ratio of 0.19. CNO Financial Group has a fifty-two week low of $19.95 and a fifty-two week high of $28.39. The company has a market capitalization of $2.77 billion, a PE ratio of 10.55 and a beta of 1.03.

CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.33. CNO Financial Group had a net margin of 6.67% and a return on equity of 17.51%. The company had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $934.05 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that CNO Financial Group will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current year.

CNO Financial Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.36%. CNO Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.90%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CNO Financial Group news, CEO Gary C. Bhojwani sold 16,837 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.00, for a total value of $454,599.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 406,808 shares in the company, valued at $10,983,816. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Gary C. Bhojwani sold 20,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.31, for a total transaction of $551,662.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 293,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,023,732.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary C. Bhojwani sold 16,837 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.00, for a total transaction of $454,599.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 406,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,983,816. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 152,590 shares of company stock worth $4,116,255. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CNO. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of CNO Financial Group during the 4th quarter worth about $32,205,000. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of CNO Financial Group by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,806,159 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $350,739,000 after purchasing an additional 626,454 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama acquired a new position in shares of CNO Financial Group during the 4th quarter worth about $10,568,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in CNO Financial Group by 97.8% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 587,569 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,393,000 after acquiring an additional 290,585 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in CNO Financial Group by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,189,796 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $51,964,000 after acquiring an additional 266,945 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.43% of the company’s stock.

CNO Financial Group Company Profile

CNO Financial Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, develops, markets, and administers health insurance, annuity, individual life insurance, insurance products, and financial services for senior and middle-income markets in the United States. It offers Medicare supplement, supplemental health, and long-term care insurance policies; life insurance; and annuities, as well as Medicare advantage plans to individuals through phone, online, mail, and face-to-face.