Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $879,000 in CNO Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CNO)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of CNO Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CNO) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 31,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $879,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CNO. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in CNO Financial Group during the third quarter worth approximately $544,000. Denali Advisors LLC grew its stake in CNO Financial Group by 517.6% during the third quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 10,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $249,000 after purchasing an additional 8,800 shares during the period. Uncommon Cents Investing LLC grew its stake in CNO Financial Group by 8.0% during the third quarter. Uncommon Cents Investing LLC now owns 12,465 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $296,000 after purchasing an additional 925 shares during the period. Everhart Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in CNO Financial Group by 12.6% during the third quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 10,911 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $259,000 after purchasing an additional 1,225 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in CNO Financial Group by 16.1% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 22,606 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $536,000 after purchasing an additional 3,128 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com cut CNO Financial Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on CNO Financial Group from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Piper Sandler raised CNO Financial Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $29.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on CNO Financial Group from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CNO Financial Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.50.

CNO Financial Group Stock Down 1.7 %

CNO stock opened at $26.44 on Friday. CNO Financial Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $19.95 and a twelve month high of $28.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $26.65 and its 200-day moving average is $26.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a PE ratio of 10.97 and a beta of 1.03.

CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.33. The company 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that CNO Financial Group, Inc. will post 3.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CNO Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.27%. CNO Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.90%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 406,808 shares in the company, valued at $10,983,816. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 406,808 shares in the company, valued at $10,983,816. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary C. Bhojwani sold 18,692 shares of CNO Financial Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.52, for a total value of $514,403.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 314,002 shares in the company, valued at $8,641,335.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 152,590 shares of company stock worth $4,116,255. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.