# CNO Financial Group (CNO.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/CNO

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:27:33.870Z. Financial observations: FY2015–FY2025.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: pass; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $54.58 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low $0.69 per share, central $0.87 per share, high $1.15 per share. Buy at or below the central value $0.87 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:27:33.870Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

Expected annual return: 6.1% at the stated quote. About 6.1% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%). required return 10.0% a year (10% floor; US 10-year bond 5.1% + 4 points).

## Checklist

### understandable: pass

- Financial history: 10 years

- Profitable years in the last ten: 9

- Required profitable years: 8

- Return on common equity variation (informational): 1.33×

Chart: Net income; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: $358M

- FY2017: $176M

- FY2018: -$315M

- FY2019: $409M

- FY2020: $302M

- FY2021: $570M

- FY2022: $631M

- FY2023: $277M

- FY2024: $421M

- FY2025: $229M

### moat: fail

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity

- median return on common equity below threshold

- Bank / P&C ROTE, median of available years: 6.7%

- Required median return: 10.0%

- Return uses tangible common equity: No

- Bank ROTE, second-lowest year: 1.4%

- Years with reported combined ratio: 0

Chart: Return on common equity; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 8.0%

- FY2017: 3.6%

- FY2018: -9.3%

- FY2019: 1.4%

- FY2020: 5.5%

- FY2021: 1.8%

- FY2022: 35.7%

- FY2023: 12.5%

- FY2024: 16.7%

- FY2025: 8.7%

### economics: fail

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity

- book value per share plus dividends compounded below 7% annually

- Book value per share + reinvested dividends, annualized return: 4.1%

- Book return interval: 10 years

- Starting book value per share: $21.21

- Ending book value per share: $26.43

Chart: Annual book + dividend return; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 20.1%

- FY2017: 13.3%

- FY2018: -26.3%

- FY2019: 834.3%

- FY2020: -79.6%

- FY2021: 542.4%

- FY2022: -93.7%

- FY2023: 32.0%

- FY2024: 24.1%

- FY2025: 16.5%

### management: pass

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: -6.5%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: -7.0%

- Share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: -6.5%

- Five-year share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: -7.0%

- Flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0

- Book created / earnings retained after dividends and buybacks: 7.50×

- Book value created per share: $5.22

- Earnings retained per share after dividends and buybacks: $0.70

Chart: Shares (first year = 100); fiscal year observations.

- FY2015: 100

- FY2016: 91

- FY2017: 88

- FY2018: 85

- FY2019: 81

- FY2020: 73

- FY2021: 67

- FY2022: 60

- FY2023: 59

- FY2024: 55

- FY2025: 51

### accounting: pass

- Financial accounting warning count: 0

- Known restatement years: 0

## Holders

- [Richard Pzena](https://gigainvestors.com/PIM): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

The price is 1.2 times annual sales · "CNO Financial Beats Q2 Earnings Estimates on Higher Collected Premiums" (finance.yahoo.com, Aug 2026) · net income -45.5%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:58:32.130Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

The price is 1.2 times annual sales

- 2025-08-01: CNO Q2 Earnings Beat Estimates on Strong Annuity Collected Premiums ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cno-q2-earnings-beat-estimates-180500066.html))

- 2025-11-12: CNO Q3 Earnings Top on Strong Life Collected Premiums, Stock Up 4% ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cno-q3-earnings-top-strong-162700951.html))

- 2026-05-05: CNO Beats Q1 Earnings Estimates on Higher Life and Health Premiums ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/healthcare/articles/cno-beats-q1-earnings-estimates-154000746.html))

### Net income · FY2025

net income -45.5%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1224608/000122460826000017/cno-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-24.

- FY2016: $358M 

- FY2017: $176M 

- FY2018: -$315M 

- FY2019: $409M 

- FY2020: $302M 

- FY2021: $570M 

- FY2022: $631M 

- FY2023: $277M 

- FY2024: $421M 

- FY2025: $229M 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in insurance life; annual sales are USD 4.5 billion.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1224608/000122460826000017/cno-20251231.htm#000122460826000017 (filed 2026-02-24); FY2025: revenue 4487400000.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); CNO.US: CNO Financial Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops, markets, and administers health insurance, annuity, individual life insurance and other insurance products, and financial services for middle-income pre-retiree and retired Americans in the United States. It offers Medicare supplement, supplemental health, and long-term care insurance policies; life insurance; and annuities, as well as Medicare advantage plans to individual consumers through phone, virtually, online, and face-to-face with agents. The company also focuses on sale of voluntary benefit life and health insurance products for businesses, associations, and other membership groups by interacting with customers at their place of employment. In addition, it provides fixed indexed annuities; fixed interest annuities, including fixed rate single-premium deferred annuities; flexible premium deferred annuities; single premium immediate annuities; supplemental health products, such as specified disease, accident, and hospital indemnity products; and long-term care plans primarily to retirees, lesser degree, and older self-employed individuals in the middle-income market. Further, the company offers universal life and other interest-sensitive life products; and traditional life policies that include whole life, graded benefit life, term life, and single premium whole life products, as well as graded benefit life insurance products. It markets its products under the Bankers Life, Washington National, and Colonial Penn brand names. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.

### Why customers stay

It earns 6.7% on shareholders’ money, excluding intangible assets.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); 10-year return on tangible equity observations [[2016,0.07983240098954734],[2017,0.03622485817431666],[2018,-0.09344685395591681],[2019,0.013717540626570615],[2020,0.055030815798110935],[2021,0.017709310197059937],[2022,0.35651289009497966],[2023,0.1247968947463441],[2024,0.1673027989821883],[2025,0.08691532105223258]]; median 0.06743160839382914. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 10 of 10 years; bought back USD 331.4 million of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); Dividend observations: [[2016,54800000],[2017,59600000],[2018,64800000],[2019,67100000],[2020,67000000],[2021,65700000],[2022,64800000],[2023,68100000],[2024,67700000],[2025,66200000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1224608/000122460826000017/cno-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-24); FY2025: cash repurchases 331400000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 2.4% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); CNO.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 2.402 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 1.2 times annual sales.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); Closing price 54.58 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2025 annual sales per share 44.954018152311114; price multiple 1.214129509292686. FY2025 cash earnings/share 5.487768227444852. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $15.08 per share

- 2016-11: $17.90 per share

- 2016-12: $19.15 per share

- 2017-01: $18.91 per share

- 2017-02: $20.91 per share

- 2017-03: $20.50 per share

- 2017-04: $21.07 per share

- 2017-05: $20.49 per share

- 2017-06: $20.88 per share

- 2017-07: $22.88 per share

- 2017-08: $22.35 per share

- 2017-09: $23.34 per share

- 2017-10: $23.97 per share

- 2017-11: $25.21 per share

- 2017-12: $24.69 per share

- 2018-01: $24.59 per share

- 2018-02: $22.54 per share

- 2018-03: $21.67 per share

- 2018-04: $21.44 per share

- 2018-05: $20.02 per share

- 2018-06: $19.04 per share

- 2018-07: $20.35 per share

- 2018-08: $21.61 per share

- 2018-09: $21.22 per share

- 2018-10: $18.90 per share

- 2018-11: $18.30 per share

- 2018-12: $14.88 per share

- 2019-01: $17.88 per share

- 2019-02: $17.03 per share

- 2019-03: $16.18 per share

- 2019-04: $16.55 per share

- 2019-05: $15.71 per share

- 2019-06: $16.68 per share

- 2019-07: $16.91 per share

- 2019-08: $14.48 per share

- 2019-09: $15.83 per share

- 2019-10: $15.65 per share

- 2019-11: $18.12 per share

- 2019-12: $18.13 per share

- 2020-01: $17.59 per share

- 2020-02: $16.02 per share

- 2020-03: $12.39 per share

- 2020-04: $14.06 per share

- 2020-05: $14.35 per share

- 2020-06: $15.57 per share

- 2020-07: $15.10 per share

- 2020-08: $16.30 per share

- 2020-09: $16.04 per share

- 2020-10: $17.75 per share

- 2020-11: $21.28 per share

- 2020-12: $22.23 per share

- 2021-01: $21.21 per share

- 2021-02: $24.06 per share

- 2021-03: $24.29 per share

- 2021-04: $25.53 per share

- 2021-05: $26.56 per share

- 2021-06: $23.62 per share

- 2021-07: $22.84 per share

- 2021-08: $24.46 per share

- 2021-09: $23.54 per share

- 2021-10: $24.14 per share

- 2021-11: $22.66 per share

- 2021-12: $23.84 per share

- 2022-01: $24.94 per share

- 2022-02: $24.17 per share

- 2022-03: $25.09 per share

- 2022-04: $24.14 per share

- 2022-05: $20.57 per share

- 2022-06: $18.09 per share

- 2022-07: $18.75 per share

- 2022-08: $18.41 per share

- 2022-09: $17.97 per share

- 2022-10: $22.06 per share

- 2022-11: $23.48 per share

- 2022-12: $22.85 per share

- 2023-01: $25.76 per share

- 2023-02: $25.62 per share

- 2023-03: $22.19 per share

- 2023-04: $22.44 per share

- 2023-05: $21.71 per share

- 2023-06: $23.67 per share

- 2023-07: $25.72 per share

- 2023-08: $23.40 per share

- 2023-09: $23.73 per share

- 2023-10: $23.18 per share

- 2023-11: $26.50 per share

- 2023-12: $27.90 per share

- 2024-01: $27.18 per share

- 2024-02: $26.69 per share

- 2024-03: $27.48 per share

- 2024-04: $26.33 per share

- 2024-05: $28.69 per share

- 2024-06: $27.72 per share

- 2024-07: $34.86 per share

- 2024-08: $34.92 per share

- 2024-09: $35.10 per share

- 2024-10: $34.40 per share

- 2024-11: $39.90 per share

- 2024-12: $37.21 per share

- 2025-01: $39.94 per share

- 2025-02: $41.69 per share

- 2025-03: $41.65 per share

- 2025-04: $37.94 per share

- 2025-05: $37.96 per share

- 2025-06: $38.58 per share

- 2025-07: $36.84 per share

- 2025-08: $39.47 per share

- 2025-09: $39.55 per share

- 2025-10: $40.02 per share

- 2025-11: $40.93 per share

- 2025-12: $42.47 per share

- 2026-01: $42.05 per share

- 2026-02: $41.81 per share

- 2026-03: $41.06 per share

- 2026-04: $44.45 per share

- 2026-05: $45.97 per share

- 2026-06: $50.98 per share

- 2026-07: $55.09 per share

- 2026-08: $54.79 per share

- 2026-09: $52.91 per share

- 2026-10: $54.58 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

- FY2016: low $11.16 per share, central $12.27 per share, high $13.64 per share

- FY2017: low $4.82 per share, central $6.03 per share, high $8.04 per share

- FY2018: low $2.47 per share, central $3.09 per share, high $4.12 per share

- FY2019: low $43.27 per share, central $54.08 per share, high $72.11 per share

- FY2020: low $17.36 per share, central $19.10 per share, high $21.22 per share

- FY2021: low $116.63 per share, central $128.29 per share, high $142.54 per share

- FY2024: low $1.01 per share, central $1.26 per share, high $1.68 per share

- FY2025: low $0.64 per share, central $0.80 per share, high $1.07 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1224608/000122460826000017/cno-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-24.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.