CNO Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CNO) Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call November 1, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Adam Auvil - Investor Relations
Gary Bhojwani - Chief Executive Officer
Paul McDonough - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

John Barnidge - Piper Sandler
Ryan Krueger - KBW
Wilma Burdis - Raymond James
Suneet Kamath - Jefferies
Wes Carmichael - Autonomous

Operator

Good morning. Thank you for attending today's CNO Financial Group Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. My name is Regan and I'll be your moderator today. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Adam Auvil with CNO. Adam, you may now proceed.

Adam Auvil

Good morning. Thank you for joining us on CNO Financial Group's Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Today's presentation will include remarks from Gary Bhojwani, Chief Executive Officer; and Paul McDonough, Chief Financial Officer. Following the presentation, we will also have other business leaders available for the question-and-answer period.

During this conference call, we will be referring to information contained in yesterday's press release. You could obtain the release by visiting the media section of our website at cnoinc.com. This morning's presentation is also available in the Investors section of our website and was filed in a Form 8-K yesterday.

Let me remind you that any forward-looking statements we make today are subject to a number of factors, which may cause actual results to be materially different than those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Today's presentation contains a number of non-GAAP measures, which should not be considered as substitutes for the most directly comparable GAAP measures. You'll find a reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures in the appendix. Throughout the presentation, we'll be making performance comparisons and unless otherwise specified any comparisons where refer to changes between third quarter 2024 and third quarter 2023.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Gary.

Gary Bhojwani

Thanks, Adam. Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us. CNO delivered another excellent quarter. Operating earnings per diluted share were $1.11, up 26% and $0.94 or up 27% excluding significant items. Our results were broad-based across operating earnings, production, investment results and capital. Our diverse and integrated distribution model and broad product portfolio differentiate us in the marketplace. They enable our momentum in baseline of consistent and repeatable results.

CNO posted our ninth consecutive quarter of strong sales momentum and our seventh consecutive quarter of growth in producing agent count. Total new annualized premium was up 1% across the enterprise. Excluding direct-to-consumer, total NAP was up 7%. I'll cover the factors impacting the D2C business later in my remarks.