Should Value Investors Buy CNO Financial Group (CNO) Stock?

Zacks
03 Mar

Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore strong picks.

Of these, perhaps no stock market trend is more popular than value investing, which is a strategy that has proven to be successful in all sorts of market environments. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

On top of the Zacks Rank, investors can also look at our innovative Style Scores system to find stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will want to focus on the "Value" category. Stocks with high Zacks Ranks and "A" grades for Value will be some of the highest-quality value stocks on the market today.

One company to watch right now is CNO Financial Group (CNO). CNO is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is CNO's P/B ratio of 1.70. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This stock's P/B looks solid versus its industry's average P/B of 2.30. Over the past 12 months, CNO's P/B has been as high as 1.72 and as low as 1.15, with a median of 1.37.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. CNO has a P/S ratio of 0.95. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.05.

Finally, our model also underscores that CNO has a P/CF ratio of 10.30. This figure highlights a company's operating cash flow and can be used to find firms that are undervalued when considering their impressive cash outlook. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 12.53. Over the past 52 weeks, CNO's P/CF has been as high as 14.86 and as low as 6.85, with a median of 9.11.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in CNO Financial Group's strong Value grade, but they help show that the stock is likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, CNO looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research

Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.

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