HighTower Advisors LLC Reduces Position in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR)

HighTower Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR - Free Report) by 38.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,575 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 4,649 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC's holdings in RenaissanceRe were worth $1,885,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in shares of RenaissanceRe by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 1,880,166 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $466,969,000 after acquiring an additional 182,530 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake 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. Davis Selected Advisers increased its holdings in shares of RenaissanceRe by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Davis Selected Advisers now owns 142,313 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $35,409,000 after purchasing an additional 1,099 shares during the period. Nepsis Inc. raised its holdings in RenaissanceRe by 32.9% in the 4th quarter. Nepsis Inc. now owns 128,983 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $32,092,000 after acquiring an additional 31,915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in RenaissanceRe by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 83,483 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $20,771,000 after purchasing an additional 2,710 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.97% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on RNR shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of RenaissanceRe from $318.00 to $294.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of RenaissanceRe from $265.00 to $245.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays cut RenaissanceRe from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $284.00 to $234.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of RenaissanceRe from $280.00 to $284.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of RenaissanceRe from $288.00 to $277.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, RenaissanceRe currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $283.40.

RenaissanceRe Price Performance

Shares of NYSE RNR traded up $2.51 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $246.78. 322,855 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 543,946. The company has a market cap of $12.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.05, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.38. 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. The business's fifty day moving average price is $240.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $256.70.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR - Get Free Report) last released 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 return on equity of 23.41% and a net margin of 15.99%. As a group, research analysts forecast that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 26.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

RenaissanceRe Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from RenaissanceRe's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. RenaissanceRe's dividend payout ratio is 4.57%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP David E. Marra sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $254.16, for a total transaction of $254,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 79,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,178,270.72. This represents a 1.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.30% of the company's stock.

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.