RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) Increases Dividend to $0.40 Per Share

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.40 per share by the insurance provider on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from RenaissanceRe's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39.

RenaissanceRe has raised its dividend payment by an average of 2.7% annually over the last three years. RenaissanceRe has a payout ratio of 4.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect RenaissanceRe to earn $39.12 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 4.0%.

RenaissanceRe Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of RNR stock traded down $5.45 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $234.09. The company had a trading volume of 360,550 shares, compared to its average volume of 583,948. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.16 billion, a PE ratio of 6.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.43. The company's fifty day moving average is $253.99 and its 200 day moving average is $258.03. RenaissanceRe has a fifty-two week low of $208.98 and a fifty-two week high of $300.00.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The insurance provider reported $8.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.94 by $1.12. RenaissanceRe had a return on equity of 23.41% and a net margin of 15.99%. Research analysts expect that RenaissanceRe will post 29.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on RNR shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of RenaissanceRe from $265.00 to $245.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered RenaissanceRe from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. JMP Securities reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of RenaissanceRe in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on RenaissanceRe from $229.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on RenaissanceRe from $280.00 to $284.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $279.90.

Insider Transactions at RenaissanceRe

In other RenaissanceRe news, EVP David E. Marra sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.16, for a total transaction of $254,160.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 79,392 shares of the company's stock, 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 document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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.