Reviewing SelectQuote (NYSE:SLQT) and CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO)

SelectQuote (NYSE:SLQT) and CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

SelectQuote has a beta of 1.62, meaning that its stock price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CNO Financial Group has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares SelectQuote and CNO Financial Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SelectQuote	5.60%	20.49%	5.58%
CNO Financial Group	5.44%	17.65%	1.18%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for SelectQuote and CNO Financial Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SelectQuote	1	1	0	2	2.75
CNO Financial Group	1	1	3	0	2.40

SelectQuote currently has a consensus target price of $3.00, indicating a potential upside of 198.51%. CNO Financial Group has a consensus target price of $47.50, indicating a potential upside of 0.34%. Given SelectQuote’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe SelectQuote is more favorable than CNO Financial Group.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares SelectQuote and CNO Financial Group”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SelectQuote	$1.64 billion	0.11	$47.58 million	$0.09	11.17
CNO Financial Group	$4.51 billion	0.98	$229.30 million	$2.49	19.01

CNO Financial Group has higher revenue and earnings than SelectQuote. SelectQuote is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CNO Financial Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

34.6% of SelectQuote shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.4% of CNO Financial Group shares are held by institutional investors. 13.1% of SelectQuote shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of CNO Financial Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

SelectQuote beats CNO Financial Group on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SelectQuote

SelectQuote, Inc. operates a technology-enabled, direct-to-consumer distribution platform that sells a range of insurance products and healthcare services in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Senior; Life; and Auto & Home. It distributes senior health policies, such as medicare advantage, medicare supplement, medicare part D, and other ancillary senior health insurance related products, including prescription drugs, dental, vision, and hearing plans; life insurance products, such as term life, final expense, and other ancillary products, including critical illness, accidental death, and juvenile insurance; homeowners, auto, dwelling fire, and other ancillary insurance products; and non-commercial auto and home property, and casualty policies. The company also provides SelectRx, an accredited patient-centered pharmacy home pharmacy, which offers essential prescription medications, OTC medications, customized medication packaging, medication therapy management, and long-term pharmacy care; and population health that helps members understand the benefits available under their health plans, and contracts with insurance carriers. SelectQuote, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas.

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. The company also focuses on sale of voluntary benefit life and health insurance products for businesses, associations, and other membership groups by interacting with customers at their place of employment. In addition, it provides fixed indexed annuities; fixed interest annuities, including fixed rate single and flexible premium deferred annuities; single premium immediate annuities; supplemental health products, such as specified disease, accident, and hospital indemnity products; and long-term care plans primarily to retirees and older self-employed individuals in the middle-income market. Further, the company offers universal life and other interest-sensitive life products; and traditional life policies that include whole life, graded benefit life, term life, and single premium whole life products, as well as graded benefit life insurance products. It markets its products under the Bankers Life, Washington National, and Colonial Penn brand names. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.