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Should Value Investors Buy CNO Financial (CNO) Stock?

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The proven Zacks Rank system focuses on earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find winning stocks. Nevertheless, we know that our readers all have their own perspectives, so we are always looking at the latest trends in value, growth, and momentum to find strong picks.

Considering these trends, value investing is clearly one of the most preferred ways to find strong stocks in any type of market. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

Zacks has developed the innovative Style Scores system to highlight stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will be interested in stocks with great grades in the "Value" category. When paired with a high Zacks Rank, "A" grades in the Value category are among the strongest value stocks on the market today.

One company to watch right now is CNO Financial (CNO - Free Report) . CNO is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 8.54 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 10.11. CNO's Forward P/E has been as high as 10.07 and as low as 4.46, with a median of 7.62, all within the past year.

Another notable valuation metric for CNO is its P/B ratio of 0.63. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to 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 1.37. CNO's P/B has been as high as 0.70 and as low as 0.29, with a median of 0.57, over the past year.

Value investors also love the P/S ratio, which is calculated by simply dividing a stock's price with the company's sales. This is a popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. CNO has a P/S ratio of 0.67. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.83.

Finally, our model also underscores that CNO has a P/CF ratio of 4.04. This metric focuses on a firm's operating cash flow and is often used to find stocks that are undervalued based on the strength of their cash outlook. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 5.33. Within the past 12 months, CNO's P/CF has been as high as 7.10 and as low as -40.14, with a median of 3.32.

These are just a handful of the figures considered in CNO Financial's great Value grade. Still, they help show that the stock is likely being undervalued at the moment. Add this to the strength of its earnings outlook, and we can clearly see that CNO is an impressive value stock right now.


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