CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) & MBIA (NYSE:MBI) Head-To-Head Analysis

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

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares CNO Financial Group and MBIA”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CNO Financial Group	$4.45 billion	0.87	$404.00 million	$2.71	14.78
MBIA	$42.00 million	9.13	-$444.00 million	($4.65)	-1.63

CNO Financial Group has higher revenue and earnings than MBIA. MBIA 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.

Volatility & Risk

CNO Financial Group has a beta of 0.9, indicating that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MBIA has a beta of 1.94, indicating that its share price is 94% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CNO Financial Group	6.41%	16.63%	1.13%
MBIA	-218.45%	N/A	-1.75%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for CNO Financial Group and MBIA, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CNO Financial Group	0	3	2	0	2.40
MBIA	0	0	1	0	3.00

CNO Financial Group currently has a consensus target price of $43.40, indicating a potential upside of 8.37%. MBIA has a consensus target price of $8.00, indicating a potential upside of 5.33%. Given CNO Financial Group’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe CNO Financial Group is more favorable than MBIA.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

95.4% of CNO Financial Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.0% of MBIA shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.0% of CNO Financial Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.6% of MBIA shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

CNO Financial Group beats MBIA on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About MBIA

MBIA Inc. provides financial guarantee insurance services to public finance markets in the United States. It operates United States (U.S.) Public Finance Insurance, and International and Structured Finance Insurance segments. The company issues financial guarantees for municipal bonds, including tax-exempt and taxable indebtedness of the U.S. political subdivisions, as well as utility districts, airports, health care institutions, higher educational facilities, housing authorities, and other similar agencies and obligations issued by private entities. It also insures the non-U.S. public finance and global structured finance, including asset-backed obligations; and sovereign-related and sub-sovereign bonds, and privately issued bonds used for the financing for utilities, toll roads, bridges, public transportation facilities, and other types of infrastructure projects, as well as offers third-party reinsurance services. MBIA Inc. was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Purchase, New York.