CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) Raised to Overweight at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler upgraded shares of CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. Piper Sandler currently has $29.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of CNO Financial Group from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. StockNews.com lowered CNO Financial Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted 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 equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $27.50.

CNO Financial Group Stock Up 2.3 %

CNO Financial Group stock opened at $25.69 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.19 and a quick 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $26.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $26.14. The firm has a market cap of $2.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.66 and a beta of 1.03.

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

CNO Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. CNO Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is 24.90%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CNO Financial Group

In other CNO Financial Group news, CEO Gary C. Bhojwani sold 16,837 shares of CNO Financial Group stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.00, for a total transaction of $454,599.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 406,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,983,816. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Scott L. Goldberg sold 7,325 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.65, for a total transaction of $195,211.25. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 178,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,751,561.75. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary C. Bhojwani sold 16,837 shares of CNO Financial Group stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,983,816. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 152,590 shares of company stock worth $4,116,255 over the last three months. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CNO Financial Group

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CNO. Norges Bank bought a new stake in CNO Financial Group during the 4th quarter worth about $32,205,000. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of CNO Financial Group by 4.1% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,806,159 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $350,739,000 after purchasing an additional 626,454 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama acquired a new stake in shares of CNO Financial Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $10,568,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in CNO Financial Group by 1,862.5% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 315,597 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,673,000 after purchasing an additional 299,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in CNO Financial Group by 97.8% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 587,569 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,393,000 after buying an additional 290,585 shares in the last quarter. 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.