Here is What Hedge Funds Think About CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO)

CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO) was in 17 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. CNO investors should pay attention to an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. There were 13 hedge funds in our database with CNO holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

According to most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, old investment vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the crème de la crème of this group, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by watching their best picks, we have come up with a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (check out a sample of our picks).

CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO)

Just as important, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the world of equities. There are a number of stimuli for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a peek at the key action regarding CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO).

What have hedge funds been doing with CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO)?

At year’s end, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 31% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

Of the funds we track, Paulson & Co, managed by John Paulson, holds the most valuable position in CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO). Paulson & Co has a $201 million position in the stock, comprising 1.2% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Otter Creek Management, managed by Roger Keith Long, which held a $21 million position; the fund has 3.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, initiated the most valuable position in CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO). Renaissance Technologies had 4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. SAC Subsidiary’s CR Intrinsic Investors also made a $1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new CNO investors: David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s tactics, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO) is no exception.

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