CNO Financial Group (CNO) Competitors

Brighthouse Financial (NASDAQ:BHF) and CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends and profitability.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of BHF or CNO?

81.2% of Brighthouse Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.4% of CNO Financial Group shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Brighthouse Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of CNO Financial Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, BHF or CNO?

CNO Financial Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Brighthouse Financial. Brighthouse Financial 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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Brighthouse Financial	$4.72B	0.56	$388M	$9.24	5.00
CNO Financial Group	$4.45B	0.85	$404M	$2.71	14.44

Which has more risk and volatility, BHF or CNO?

Brighthouse Financial has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CNO Financial Group has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is BHF or CNO more profitable?

Brighthouse Financial has a net margin of 10.24% compared to CNO Financial Group's net margin of 6.41%. Brighthouse Financial's return on equity of 21.06% beat CNO Financial Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Brighthouse Financial	10.24%	21.06%	0.47%
CNO Financial Group	6.41%	16.63%	1.13%

Do analysts prefer BHF or CNO?

Brighthouse Financial presently has a consensus target price of $59.67, suggesting a potential upside of 29.26%. CNO Financial Group has a consensus target price of $43.40, suggesting a potential upside of 10.94%. Given Brighthouse Financial's higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Brighthouse Financial is more favorable than CNO Financial Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Brighthouse Financial	2 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.13
CNO Financial Group	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40

Does the media favor BHF or CNO?

In the previous week, Brighthouse Financial had 8 more articles in the media than CNO Financial Group. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Brighthouse Financial and 3 mentions for CNO Financial Group. CNO Financial Group's average media sentiment score of 1.54 beat Brighthouse Financial's score of 0.91 indicating that CNO Financial Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Brighthouse Financial	5 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
CNO Financial Group	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Summary

CNO Financial Group beats Brighthouse Financial on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.