Stocks · Financial Services · Insurance - Life
CNO Financial Group, Inc. CNO
$53.86 +1.47% Close, Oct 2, 2026 · NYSE · Market cap $5.03B
Strong trend
Next earnings report: Nov 2, 2026
Scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to move. Daily prices adjusted for splits. Markers: E = earnings (green beat, red miss), S = split, D = dividend.
Three things to know
- The diluted share count fell 7.9% in a year, mainly through buybacks.
- Net debt is 4.0× EBITDA, a high level of leverage.
- The shares trade at 18.4× trailing earnings, higher than 86% of the company's own readings over the past five years.
PromtFinance scores
Each score is a percentile within the Financial Services sector (0–100). Under each score: how the stock ranks in its sector on every component. As of Oct 5, 2026.
Growth26Very weak
How fast revenue, earnings and cash flow are growing.
- Revenue growth (TTM, YoY)Bottom 48%
- EPS growth (TTM, YoY)Bottom 36%
- FCF growth (TTM, YoY)Bottom 32%
- Revenue growth, 3-year CAGRBottom 23%
- Revenue growth accelerationTop 37%
Quality46Neutral
Returns on capital, margins, earnings quality and balance-sheet strength.
- Return on invested capitalTop 49%
- Gross marginBottom 16%
- Operating marginBottom 17%
- Cash conversion (OCF / net income)Top 14%
- Accruals (lower is better)Top 32%
- Net debt / EBITDA (lower is better)Bottom 31%
- Interest coverTop 35%
Value66Positive
How cheap the shares are relative to earnings, cash flow and their own history.
- Earnings yieldBottom 43%
- Free-cash-flow yieldTop 20%
- EBITDA / enterprise valueTop 30%
- Sales / enterprise valueTop 23%
- P/E vs own 5-year history (lower is better)Bottom 19%
Momentum87Strong
Strength and persistence of the price trend, including versus the S&P 500.
- 12-month return excluding last monthTop 12%
- 6-month returnTop 10%
- 1-year return vs S&P 500Top 14%
- Distance from 52-week highTop 33%
- Trend checklist (0–4)Top 48%
Revisions63Neutral
Earnings surprises and analyst sentiment (estimate-revision history is being collected).
- Average EPS surprise, last 4 quartersTop 10%
- Consecutive EPS beatsTop 24%
- Share of analysts rating BuyBottom 33%
- Upside to consensus price targetBottom 25%
Stability63Neutral
Low volatility, shallow drawdowns, low market sensitivity and modest leverage.
- Volatility, 60 days (lower is better)Top 28%
- Maximum drawdown, 3 yearsTop 22%
- Beta vs S&P 500 (lower is better)Bottom 49%
- Net debt / EBITDA (lower is better)Bottom 31%
What changed
Latest four quarters versus the same period a year earlier (growth: versus one quarter earlier).
| Measure | Before | Now | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 5.0% | 6.0% | ↑ |
| EPS growth (YoY) | -13.2% | 8.6% | ↑ |
| Gross margin | 38.3% | 43.4% | ↑ |
| Operating margin | 8.2% | 7.7% | ↓ |
| FCF margin | 16.1% | 15.0% | ↓ |
Fundamental momentum
| Measure | Now (TTM) | Year / quarter before | Sector rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth (TTM, YoY) | 6.0% | 5.0% | ↑ | Bottom 48% |
| EPS growth (TTM, YoY) | 8.6% | -13.2% | ↑ | Bottom 36% |
| Gross margin | 43.4% | 38.3% | ↑ | Bottom 16% |
| Operating margin | 7.7% | 8.2% | ↓ | Bottom 17% |
| Net margin | 6.0% | 6.4% | ↓ | — |
| Free-cash-flow margin | 15.0% | 16.1% | ↓ | — |
| Return on invested capital | 1.4% | — | Top 49% | |
| Revenue growth, 3-year CAGR | 7.9% | — | Bottom 23% |
Quality of earnings and balance sheet
- Cash conversion (OCF / net income)Above 1× means profits are backed by cash.
- 2.50×
- Accruals (net income − OCF) / assetsLower is better; high accruals can signal weaker earnings quality.
- -1.1%
- Stock-based compensation / revenueA cost to shareholders through dilution.
- 0.0%
- Receivables growth vs revenue growthReceivables growing much faster than sales can be a warning.
- -10.3 pp
- Net debt / EBITDABelow 1× is conservative; above 3× is high leverage.
- 3.99×
- Interest cover (operating income / interest)How many times operating profit covers interest.
- 1.6×
Shareholder returns
- Dividend yield (dividends paid, TTM)
- 1.32%
- Net buyback yield (TTM)
- 4.85%
- Shareholder yield
- 6.17%
- Share count change, 1 year
- -7.9%
- Share count change, 3-year CAGR
- -6.4%
Shareholder yield = dividends + net buybacks over the last four quarters, divided by market cap.
Based on the four quarters through Jun 30, 2026 (filed Aug 6, 2026).
Earnings and expectations
Earnings momentum
- Consecutive EPS beats
- 5
- Beats in the last 8 reports
- 7 of 8
- Average EPS surprise, last 4
- +27.1%
- Average 2-day reaction, last 8
- -0.4%
- Positive 20 days after report
- 5 of 8
Analysts
- Consensus price target
- $57.67
- Target vs current price
- +7.1%
- Analysts with a rating
- 17
- Share rating Buy or Strong Buy
- 35%
- Consensus rating
- Hold
How the stock reacted to recent reports
| Report date | EPS surprise | 2 days | 5 days | 20 days | 60 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 30, 2026 | +29.6% | +1.0% | +5.2% | +3.4% | — |
| Apr 30, 2026 | +15.4% | -0.5% | +2.4% | +3.5% | +19.0% |
| Feb 5, 2026 | +22.5% | -0.5% | +1.3% | -0.9% | +4.9% |
| Nov 3, 2025 | +40.8% | -1.1% | +3.1% | +1.9% | +4.5% |
| Jul 28, 2025 | +2.4% | -0.6% | -6.2% | +4.8% | +4.4% |
| Apr 28, 2025 | +0.0% | +0.9% | -3.5% | -6.2% | -5.2% |
| Feb 6, 2025 | +23.6% | -0.1% | +1.3% | -0.9% | -4.7% |
| Oct 31, 2024 | +32.1% | -1.9% | +13.2% | +14.5% | +13.9% |
Returns from the close before each report. Past reactions do not determine future ones.
Earnings history
| Report date | EPS | Estimate | Surprise | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 30, 2026 | $1.26 | $0.97 | +29.6% | $1.29B |
| Apr 30, 2026 | $1.05 | $0.91 | +15.4% | $1.03B |
| Feb 5, 2026 | $1.47 | $1.20 | +22.5% | $1.14B |
| Nov 3, 2025 | $1.29 | $0.92 | +40.8% | $1.19B |
| Jul 28, 2025 | $0.87 | $0.85 | +2.4% | $1.15B |
| Apr 28, 2025 | $0.79 | $0.79 | +0.0% | $1.00B |
| Feb 6, 2025 | $1.31 | $1.06 | +23.6% | $1.10B |
| Oct 31, 2024 | $1.11 | $0.84 | +32.1% | $1.12B |
Valuation in context
| Multiple | Now | 5-year median | 5-year percentile | Sector rank (cheapness) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P/E (trailing) | 18.4× | 9.9× | 86th | Bottom 43% |
| P/E (forward) | 11.4× | — | — | — |
| EV / EBITDA | 10.1× | — | — | Top 30% |
| EV / Sales | 1.78× | — | — | Top 23% |
| Free-cash-flow yield | 13.90% | — | — | Top 20% |
| Earnings yield | 5.42% | — | — | Bottom 43% |
P/E over the past five years
Range 4.8× – 19.0× since Jun 30, 2021. Each point: price on the filing date divided by trailing-twelve-month EPS known then.
What moved the stock over the past year
- Price return, 1 year
- +37.5%
- Earnings per share growth (TTM)
- +8.6%
- Change in P/E multiple
- +38.5%
Most of the move came from a change in the valuation multiple.
Technical state
Trend checklist
- ✗ Price above 20-day average
- ✗ Price above 50-day average
- ✓ Price above 200-day average
- ✓ 50-day average above 200-day
- ✗ MACD histogram positive
Trend quality
- Days above the 50-day average
- 0
- Days above the 200-day average
- 130
- 50-day average slope (20 days)
- +1.5%
- 200-day average slope (20 days)
- +3.0%
- Distance from 50-day average
- -1.3%
- Distance from 200-day average
- +13.7%
- RSI (14)
- 46.5
- Relative volume
- 0.63×
Risk and drawdowns
- Volatility, 60 days (annualized)
- 16.6%
- Volatility vs own 5-year history
- 0th percentile · Low for this stock
- Beta vs S&P 500 (2 years, weekly)
- 0.71
- Correlation with S&P 500
- 0.46
- Current drawdown from 1-year high
- -5.1%
- Maximum drawdown, 3 years
- -16.2%
Largest declines in the past six years
| From peak | To low | Decline | Length | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 17, 2021 | Jul 14, 2022 | -39.8% | 292 days | 363 days (Dec 21, 2023) |
| Apr 2, 2025 | Aug 1, 2025 | -16.2% | 83 days | 94 days (Dec 15, 2025) |
| Nov 26, 2024 | Dec 18, 2024 | -11.7% | 15 days | 33 days (Feb 7, 2025) |
| Feb 6, 2026 | Mar 27, 2026 | -11.4% | 34 days | 22 days (Apr 29, 2026) |
| Jan 20, 2021 | Jan 29, 2021 | -11.0% | 7 days | 14 days (Feb 19, 2021) |
Declines of 10% or more from a closing high, measured on daily closes.
Financial statements
- Market cap
- $5.03B
- P/E (TTM)
- 18.4
- EPS, diluted (TTM)
- $2.92
- Revenue (TTM)
- $4.65B
- Dividend yield
- 1.30%
- 52-week range
- $38.22 – $57.59
| FY 2021 | FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $4.12B | $3.58B | $4.15B | $4.45B | $4.49B |
| Gross profit | $1.70B | $1.79B | $1.53B | $1.70B | $2.01B |
| Operating income | $733.1M | $816.5M | $356.8M | $518.3M | $293.4M |
| Net income | $570.3M | $630.6M | $276.5M | $404.0M | $229.3M |
| EPS (diluted) | $3.36 | $5.36 | $2.40 | $3.74 | $2.35 |
| Q3 2024 | Q4 2024 | Q1 2025 | Q2 2025 | Q3 2025 | Q4 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.13B | $1.10B | $1.00B | $1.15B | $1.19B | $1.14B | $1.03B | $1.29B |
| Net income | $9.3M | $166.1M | $13.7M | $91.8M | $23.1M | $92.9M | $37.7M | $125.9M |
| EPS (diluted) | $0.09 | $1.58 | $0.13 | $0.89 | $0.23 | $0.96 | $0.40 | $1.33 |
| FY 2021 | FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | $598.3M | $495.4M | $582.9M | $627.7M | $675.7M |
| Capital expenditure | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Free cash flow | $598.3M | $495.4M | $582.9M | $627.7M | $675.7M |
| Dividends paid | -$65.7M | -$64.8M | -$68.1M | -$67.7M | -$66.2M |
| Net share buybacks | -$386.3M | -$176.6M | -$152.9M | -$289.0M | -$319.8M |
Cash outflows are shown as negative numbers.
- Cash and short-term investments
- $9.52B
- Total assets
- $39.80B
- Total liabilities
- $37.27B
- Total debt
- $4.55B
- Net debt
- $3.26B
- Shareholders’ equity
- $2.59B
As of Jun 30, 2026 (filed Aug 6, 2026).
Dividends
| Ex-date | Amount | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 10, 2026 | $0.18 | Sep 24, 2026 |
| Jun 10, 2026 | $0.18 | Jun 24, 2026 |
| Mar 10, 2026 | $0.17 | Mar 24, 2026 |
| Dec 10, 2025 | $0.17 | Dec 23, 2025 |
| Sep 10, 2025 | $0.17 | Sep 24, 2025 |
| Jun 10, 2025 | $0.17 | Jun 24, 2025 |
| Mar 10, 2025 | $0.16 | Mar 24, 2025 |
| Dec 10, 2024 | $0.16 | Dec 24, 2024 |
Short interest
- Shares sold short
- 2,166,794
- Days to cover
- 1.94
- Change vs previous report
- +9.3%
FINRA short interest, settlement date Sep 15, 2026.