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CNO Financial's (CNO) Q2 Earnings Beat Estimates, Fall Y/Y

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CNO Financial Group, Inc.’s (CNO - Free Report) second-quarter 2020 adjusted earnings per share of 43 cents beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 30.3%. However, the bottom line declined 10.4% year over year on account of fall in annuity collected premiums and lower margin in life insurance products, partly offset by reduced costs.

Nevertheless, the company’s total revenues improved 3.5% year over year to $1.01 billion due to higher insurance policy income, improved income from policyholder and other special-purpose portfolios, and increased fee revenue and other income. The top line also outpaced the consensus mark by 23.4%.

Quarterly Operational Update

Annuity collected premiums plunged 29% year over year to $242.7 million due to pricing discipline.

New annualized premiums for life and health products were $69.4 million, down 19% from the year-ago period.

Total insurance policy income inched up 1% year over year to $625.3 million.

Operating return on equity for the second quarter was 10.5%, contracting 40 basis points (bps) year over year.

Total benefits and expenses fell 2.5% year over year to $908.8 million, primarily on account of lower insurance policy benefits and interest expense.

CNO Financial Group, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

CNO Financial Group, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

CNO Financial Group, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | CNO Financial Group, Inc. Quote

Financial Update

Unrestricted cash and cash equivalents held by CNO Financial were $521.1 million as of Jun 30, 2020, down 10.2% from the level at 2019 end.

As of Jun 30, 2020, total assets were $34 billion, up 1% from the level at 2019 end.

Debt-to-capital was 17.3% as of Jun 30, 2020 compared with 17.5% at 2019 end.

Securities Repurchase and Divided Update

In the second quarter, the company returned $47.4 million in the form of share buybacks and dividends.

Zacks Rank & Performance of Other Insurers

CNO Financial carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Among other insurance industry players, which have reported second-quarter earnings so far, the bottom lines of Arch Capital Group Ltd. (ACGL - Free Report) , Markel Corporation (MKL - Free Report) and AXIS Capital Holdings Limited (AXS - Free Report) beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

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