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Should Value Investors Buy CNO Financial Group (CNO) Stock?

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Here at Zacks, we focus on our proven ranking system, which places an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, to find winning stocks. But we also understand that investors develop their own strategies, so we are constantly looking at the latest trends in value, growth, and momentum to find strong companies for our readers.

Of these, value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. 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 to watch right now is CNO Financial Group (CNO - Free Report) . CNO is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), as well as an A grade for Value.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is CNO's P/B ratio of 1.52. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This stock's P/B looks solid versus its industry's average P/B of 2.60. Within the past 52 weeks, CNO's P/B has been as high as 1.75 and as low as 1.31, with a median of 1.50.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio 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 0.97. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.03.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in CNO Financial Group'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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