CNO Financial Group, Inc.’s (NYSE:CNO) first-quarter 2018 adjusted earnings of 44 cents per share came in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. However, the bottom line improved 29.4% year over year.
CNO Financial’s total revenues declined 6% year over year to $1,007.8 million in the reported quarter. However, the top line slightly surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Quarterly Operational Update
Total collected premiums were $928.1 million, down 1% from the prior-year quarter.
New annualized premiums for life and health products amounted to $78.1 million, down 11% from the year-ago period.
First-year collected premiums totaled $331.1 million, down 4% from the year-earlier quarter.
Quarterly Segment Update
Bankers Life
Total collected premiums were $672.5million, down 2% year over year.
New annualized premiums for life and health products decreased 14% year over year to $35.7 million.
Washington National
Total collected premiums of $176.2 were up 2% year over year.
New Annualized premiums from life and health products were $23.8 million, down 3% from the year-ago quarter.
Pre-tax operating earnings were up 46% compared with the prior-year quarter.
Colonial Penn
Total collected premiums were $75.3 million, up 1% year over year.
New annualized premiums were $18.6 million, down 15% from the year-ago quarter.
The pre-tax loss was $1.5 million, narrower than the loss of $.3 million in the year-ago quarter.
Long-Term Care in Run-off
Total collected premiums were $4.1 million, down from $4.6 million a year ago.
The long-term care business was recaptured in September 2016 with the segment having recognized pre-tax earnings of $0.6 million in the reported quarter versus$3.9 million loss in the same period last year.
The company expects this segment to report normalized earnings before net realized investment gains (losses) of approximately breakeven over the long term.
Corporate Operations
The segment includes performance of the investment advisory subsidiary and corporate expenses.
Pre-tax loss of $15.5 million in the first quarter was wider than the loss of $8.9 million in the year-ago quarter.
CNO Financial Group, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Financial Update
Unrestricted cash and investments held by CNO Financial’sholding company were $378 million as of Mar 31, 2018, down 4.8% from the year-end 2017.
Debt-to-capital ratio was 16.5% as of Mar 31, 2018 compared with 15.9% at the end of 2017.
Securities Repurchase and Divided Update
During the first quarter, the company did not repurchase any common stock.
Dividends paid on common stock totaled $15.4 million in the same period.
Zacks Rank and Performance of Other Multiline Insurers
CNO Financial carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Among other players from the insurance industry having reported first-quarter earnings so far, the bottom line of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) , MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE:MTG) and The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) beat the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate.
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Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO): Free Stock Analysis Report
MGIC Investment Corporation (MTG): Free Stock Analysis Report
CNO Financial Group, Inc. (CNO): Free Stock Analysis Report
The Progressive Corporation (PGR): Free Stock Analysis Report
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