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Should Value Investors Buy CNO Financial (CNO) Stock?

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Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore 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 rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.

In addition to the Zacks Rank, investors looking for stocks with specific traits can utilize our Style Scores system. Of course, value investors will be most interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with "A" grades for Value and high Zacks Ranks are among the best value stocks available at any given moment.

One company value investors might notice is CNO Financial (CNO - Free Report) . CNO is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as an A grade for Value.

We should also highlight that CNO has a P/B ratio of 0.55. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. CNO's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 1.02. Over the past 12 months, CNO's P/B has been as high as 0.66 and as low as 0.29, with a median of 0.52.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by 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 0.68. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.8.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in CNO Financial's strong Value grade, but they help show that the stock is likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, CNO looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.


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