CNO Financial Group (CNO) Competitors

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

Do insiders and institutionals believe in AIZ or CNO?

92.7% of Assurant shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.4% of CNO Financial Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Assurant shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.0% of CNO Financial Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, AIZ or CNO?

Assurant has a beta of 0.55, meaning that its stock price is 45% 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.

Does the media favor AIZ or CNO?

In the previous week, Assurant had 17 more articles in the media than CNO Financial Group. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Assurant and 8 mentions for CNO Financial Group. Assurant's average media sentiment score of 0.91 beat CNO Financial Group's score of 0.89 indicating that Assurant is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Assurant	13 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
CNO Financial Group	4 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is AIZ or CNO a better dividend stock?

Assurant pays an annual dividend of $3.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. CNO Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Assurant pays out 23.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CNO Financial Group pays out 25.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Assurant has raised its dividend for 21 consecutive years and CNO Financial Group has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Do analysts recommend AIZ or CNO?

Assurant currently has a consensus price target of $238.00, suggesting a potential upside of 8.58%. CNO Financial Group has a consensus price target of $43.40, suggesting a potential upside of 8.58%. Given CNO Financial Group's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe CNO Financial Group is more favorable than Assurant.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Assurant	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
CNO Financial Group	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has better earnings and valuation, AIZ or CNO?

Assurant has higher revenue and earnings than CNO Financial Group. CNO Financial Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Assurant, 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
Assurant	$12.30B	0.90	$760.20M	$13.81	15.87
CNO Financial Group	$4.45B	0.87	$404M	$2.71	14.75

Is AIZ or CNO more profitable?

CNO Financial Group has a net margin of 6.41% compared to Assurant's net margin of 5.83%. CNO Financial Group's return on equity of 16.63% beat Assurant's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Assurant	5.83%	16.47%	2.47%
CNO Financial Group	6.41%	16.63%	1.13%

Summary

Assurant beats CNO Financial Group on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.