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

StockNews.com downgraded shares of CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on CNO. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on CNO Financial Group from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on CNO Financial Group from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $25.80.

CNO Financial Group Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of CNO opened at $27.48 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $26.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.91. CNO Financial Group has a twelve month low of $19.95 and a twelve month high of $28.39. The stock has a market cap of $3.00 billion, a PE ratio of 11.40 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50.

CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.33. CNO Financial Group had a return on equity of 17.51% and a net margin of 6.67%. The firm had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $934.05 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that CNO Financial Group will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CNO Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.18%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. CNO Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.90%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CNO Financial Group news, EVP Matthew J. Zimpfer sold 3,220 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.76, for a total value of $86,167.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 278,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,465,959.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other CNO Financial Group news, EVP Matthew J. Zimpfer sold 3,220 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.76, for a total value of $86,167.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 278,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,465,959.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Scott L. Goldberg sold 7,325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.65, for a total value of $195,211.25. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 178,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,751,561.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 98,040 shares of company stock valued at $2,622,223 over the last quarter. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of CNO Financial Group

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CNO. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of CNO Financial Group by 11.5% during the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 60,846 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,527,000 after purchasing an additional 6,281 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in shares of CNO Financial Group by 191.0% during the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 36,666 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $936,000 after purchasing an additional 24,066 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of CNO Financial Group by 38.3% during the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 141,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,540,000 after purchasing an additional 39,101 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CNO Financial Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,142,000. Finally, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its stake in shares of CNO Financial Group by 7.9% during the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 44,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,107,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.43% of the company’s stock.

About CNO Financial Group

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.