Dallas, Texas 10/21/2013 (Financialstrend) – CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO) is a $3.32 billion market capitalized Accident and health insurance provider in U.S. It has managed to post sales of $4.38 billion and account for net income of $185 million over the past 12 months. The market value of the stock has gone up by 41% in the past 6 months. These strong market sentiments and financial indicators have led ratings agencies to cast their benevolent eyes on this stock. On October 1, rating agency A.M. Best has upgraded the company from stable to positive. It has also maintained the credit ratings for the company at “bbb”.
The rating agency has called out the effective execution of key business strategies has allowed the company to expand its presence in profitable markets. It has also pointed out that the health insurer has also managed to profitably pull out of non-core sectors, thus managing to cut down expenditure. This has given the company elbow room to fund new capital expenditures which have lead to more revenue generation.
Analysts are also appreciative of the fact that close to $500 million debt restructuring that the company took up during August this year has allowed the firm to choose from multiple options to sustain its growth. On the flip side, A. M. Best has red flagged the low interest regime which seems like continuing further few months as a dampener for the insurance business. This is because the insurance firm will be earning less from their investments thus putting more pressure on its recurring cash flow.
Providing its prescription for future growth of CNO Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CNO), the analyst firm wants to see the insurer diversify its product and business mix. It also expects to see an increase in earnings growth as the cost cutting efforts over the previous quarters start to yield returns.
