CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) Stock Crosses Above 200 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

CNO Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CNO) crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Monday. The stock has a 200-day moving average of $49.30 and traded as high as $54.75. CNO Financial Group shares last traded at $53.6110, with a volume of 614,664 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Capital One Financial set a $70.00 price target on shares of CNO Financial Group in a research note on Wednesday, August 26th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of CNO Financial Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on CNO Financial Group from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded CNO Financial Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the company from $53.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded CNO Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CNO Financial Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.00.

CNO Financial Group Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $54.61 and a 200 day moving average of $49.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 0.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65. The firm has a market cap of $4.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.15 and a beta of 0.80.

CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $999.45 million. CNO Financial Group had a net margin of 6.02% and a return on equity of 18.76%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.87 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that CNO Financial Group, Inc. will post 4.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CNO Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 10th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 10th. CNO Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.74%.

Insider Activity at CNO Financial Group

In other CNO Financial Group news, insider Jeremy Williams sold 4,420 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.27, for a total transaction of $244,293.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 62,163 shares in the company, valued at $3,435,749.01. The trade was a 6.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Jeanne Linnenbringer sold 6,560 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.99, for a total value of $360,734.40. Following the sale, the insider owned 34,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,879,998.12. The trade was a 16.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 47,995 shares of company stock valued at $2,641,336 over the last three months. 3.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CNO. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in CNO Financial Group in the 1st quarter worth about $1,125,000. Callan Family Office LLC bought a new stake in CNO Financial Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,089,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in CNO Financial Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $682,433,000. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in shares of CNO Financial Group during the second quarter valued at $6,545,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in shares of CNO Financial Group by 102.1% during the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 45,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,914,000 after acquiring an additional 22,749 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.43% of the company’s stock.

About CNO Financial Group

CNO Financial Group, Inc is an insurance holding company headquartered in Carmel, Indiana. Through its operating companies, CNO provides insurance and related financial products designed primarily for middle-income Americans, including individuals and families approaching or living in retirement.

CNO’s businesses include Bankers Life, which offers life insurance, annuities and long-term care products through agents; Colonial Penn, which markets life insurance directly to consumers; and Washington National, which provides supplemental health and life insurance products.