CNO Financial Group (CNO) Competitors

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

Do analysts recommend CNO or UNM?

CNO Financial Group presently has a consensus target price of $41.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.13%. Unum Group has a consensus target price of $88.86, indicating a potential upside of 8.30%. Given Unum Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Unum Group is more favorable than CNO Financial Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CNO Financial Group	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.17
Unum Group	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.79

Which has more risk & volatility, CNO or UNM?

CNO Financial Group has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Unum Group has a beta of 0.41, indicating that its share price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to CNO or UNM?

In the previous week, Unum Group had 22 more articles in the media than CNO Financial Group. MarketBeat recorded 26 mentions for Unum Group and 4 mentions for CNO Financial Group. CNO Financial Group's average media sentiment score of 0.56 beat Unum Group's score of 0.51 indicating that CNO Financial Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
CNO Financial Group	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Unum Group	11 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	10 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is CNO or UNM a better dividend stock?

CNO Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Unum Group pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. CNO Financial Group pays out 23.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Unum Group pays out 19.8% 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. CNO Financial Group has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Unum Group has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years. Unum Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, CNO or UNM?

Unum Group has higher revenue and earnings than CNO Financial Group. Unum Group 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
CNO Financial Group	$4.45B	0.85	$404M	$2.86	13.38
Unum Group	$12.89B	1.11	$1.78B	$8.49	9.66

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in CNO or UNM?

95.4% of CNO Financial Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.6% of Unum Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.0% of CNO Financial Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Unum Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is CNO or UNM more profitable?

Unum Group has a net margin of 12.31% compared to CNO Financial Group's net margin of 7.11%. CNO Financial Group's return on equity of 17.86% beat Unum Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CNO Financial Group	7.11%	17.86%	1.21%
Unum Group	12.31%	14.17%	2.46%

Summary

Unum Group beats CNO Financial Group on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.