HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 4,649 Shares of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR)

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) by 38.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,575 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 4,649 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in RenaissanceRe were worth $1,885,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in RNR. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its position in shares of RenaissanceRe by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 1,880,166 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $466,969,000 after acquiring an additional 182,530 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. bought a new position in RenaissanceRe in the third quarter valued at about $3,684,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in RenaissanceRe by 12.3% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 80,773 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $22,003,000 after acquiring an additional 8,844 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of RenaissanceRe by 2.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 920,814 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $250,892,000 after acquiring an additional 25,773 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in shares of RenaissanceRe by 367.4% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 30,476 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $8,302,000 after purchasing an additional 23,956 shares in the last quarter. 99.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

RNR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays cut shares of RenaissanceRe from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $284.00 to $234.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of RenaissanceRe from $280.00 to $284.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on RenaissanceRe from $288.00 to $277.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on RenaissanceRe from $318.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $282.00 price target (down previously from $304.00) on shares of RenaissanceRe in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $279.90.

RenaissanceRe Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE:RNR opened at $236.75 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.76, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.38. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $241.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $257.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a 12 month low of $208.98 and a 12 month high of $300.00.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The insurance provider reported $8.06 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.94 by $1.12. RenaissanceRe had a net margin of 15.99% and a return on equity of 23.41%. Analysts expect that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 26.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

RenaissanceRe Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. This is an increase from RenaissanceRe’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. RenaissanceRe’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.57%.

Insider Activity at RenaissanceRe

In related news, EVP David E. Marra sold 1,000 shares of RenaissanceRe stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.16, for a total transaction of $254,160.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 79,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,178,270.72. This trade represents a 1.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About RenaissanceRe

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance and insurance products in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Property, and Casualty and Specialty segments. The Property segment writes property catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance and excess of loss reinsurance to insure insurance and reinsurance companies against natural and man-made catastrophes, including hurricanes, earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis, as well as winter storms, freezes, floods, fires, windstorms, tornadoes, explosions, and acts of terrorism; and other property class of products, such as proportional reinsurance, property per risk, property reinsurance, binding facilities, and regional U.S.