Sifting through countless of stocks in the Insurance industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group and Inc.

Lincoln National Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates multiple insurance and retirement businesses in the United States. It operates through four segments: Life Insurance, Annuities, Group Protection, and Retirement Plan Services. The Life Insurance segment provides life insurance products, including term insurance, universal life insurance (UL), indexed universal life insurance, variable universal life insurance (VUL), linked-benefit UL and VUL products, and critical illness and long-term care riders. Its Annuities segment offers variable, fixed, and registered index-linked annuities. The Group Protection segment offers group nonmedical insurance products consisting of short and long-term disability and administration services, statutory disability; paid family medical leave administration and absence management services; term life; life; supplemental health insurance; accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity benefits and dental and vision products to the employer marketplace through various forms of employee-paid and employer-paid plans. Its Retirement Plan Services segment provides employers with retirement plan products and services primarily in the defined contribution retirement plan marketplace; individual and group variable annuities, group fixed annuities, and mutual fund-based programs; and various plan services, including plan recordkeeping, compliance testing, participant education, and trust and custodial services. It distributes its products through consultants, brokers, planners, agents, financial advisors, third-party administrators, financial institutions, and other intermediaries. Lincoln National Corporation was founded in 1905 and is headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania.

CNO Financial Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops, markets, and administers health insurance, annuity, individual life insurance and other insurance products, and financial services for middle-income pre-retiree and retired Americans in the United States. It offers Medicare supplement, supplemental health, and long-term care insurance policies; life insurance; and annuities, as well as Medicare advantage plans to individual consumers through phone, virtually, online, and face-to-face with agents. The company also focuses on sale of voluntary benefit life and health insurance products for businesses, associations, and other membership groups by interacting with customers at their place of employment. In addition, it provides fixed indexed annuities; fixed interest annuities, including fixed rate single-premium deferred annuities; flexible premium deferred annuities; single premium immediate annuities; supplemental health products, such as specified disease, accident, and hospital indemnity products; and long-term care plans primarily to retirees, lesser degree, and older self-employed individuals in the middle-income market. Further, the company offers universal life and other interest-sensitive life products; and traditional life policies that include whole life, graded benefit life, term life, and single premium whole life products, as well as graded benefit life insurance products. It markets its products under the Bankers Life, Washington National, and Colonial Penn brand names. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.

Latest Insurance and Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group, Inc. Stock News

As of October 9, 2026, Lincoln National Corporation had a $7.7 billion market capitalization, compared to the Insurance median of $5.4 million. Lincoln National Corporation’s stock is down 9.7% in 2026, down 0.2% in the previous five trading days and up 0.88% in the past year.

Currently, Lincoln National Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 3.5. Lincoln National Corporation’s trailing 12-month revenue is $19.4 billion with a 12.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 12.6%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $7.929 per share for the current fiscal year. Lincoln National Corporation currently has a 4.5% dividend yield.

As of October 9, 2026, CNO Financial Group, Inc. had a $4.9 billion market cap, putting it in the 68th percentile of all stocks. CNO Financial Group, Inc.’s stock is up 24.8% in 2026, down 1.6% in the previous five trading days and up 32.57% in the past year.

Currently, CNO Financial Group, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 18.3. CNO Financial Group, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $4.6 billion with a 6.0% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 11.6%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $4.744 per share for the current fiscal year. CNO Financial Group, Inc. currently has a 1.4% dividend yield.

How We Compare Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group and Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Lincoln National Corporation	LNC	F
CNO Financial Group, Inc.	CNO	D

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Lincoln National Corporation has a Quality Score of 16, which is Very Weak. CNO Financial Group, Inc. has a Quality Score of 40, which is Weak.

The Quality Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group or Inc. has a high enough Quality Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to quality.

Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group and Inc.’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
Lincoln National Corporation	LNC	C
CNO Financial Group, Inc.	CNO	B

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

Lincoln National Corporation has a Momentum Score of 49, which is Average. CNO Financial Group, Inc. has a Momentum Score of 69, which is Strong.

The Momentum Grade Winner: CNO Financial Group, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Momentum Grade breakdown above, CNO Financial Group, Inc. is considered to have stronger momentum compared to Lincoln National Corporation. For those specifically looking for companies that have stronger momentum compared to other companies in the same industry, CNO Financial Group, Inc. could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group and Inc.’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company	Ticker	Earnings Estimate
Lincoln National Corporation	LNC	C
CNO Financial Group, Inc.	CNO	A

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

Lincoln National Corporation has a Earnings Estimate Score of 45, which is Neutral. CNO Financial Group, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 88, which is Very Positive.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade Winner: CNO Financial Group, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade breakdown above, CNO Financial Group, Inc. has a better Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade than Lincoln National Corporation. For those who are specifically looking for companies with better short-term prospects when compared to other companies in the same industry, CNO Financial Group, Inc. could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group and Inc. Grades

In addition to Quality, Estimate Revisions and Momentum, A+ Investor also provides grades for Value and Growth.

Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection. Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group or Inc. Stock?

Overall, Lincoln National Corporation stock has a Momentum Score of 49, Estimate Revisions Score of 45 and Quality Score of 16.

CNO Financial Group, Inc. stock has a Momentum Score of 69, Estimate Revisions Score of 88 and Quality Score of 40.

Comparing Lincoln National Corporation, CNO Financial Group and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.