HighTower Advisors LLC Trims Stake in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. $RNR

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) by 1.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,444 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 131 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in RenaissanceRe were worth $1,787,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in RenaissanceRe by 17.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 817,247 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $203,339,000 after purchasing an additional 124,125 shares during the period. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in RenaissanceRe in the first quarter valued at $271,000. Yorktown Management & Research Co Inc purchased a new stake in RenaissanceRe in the first quarter valued at $348,000. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in RenaissanceRe by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 10,715 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,666,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the period. Finally, Bridges Investment Management Inc. raised its position in RenaissanceRe by 21.9% in the first quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,020 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,445,000 after purchasing an additional 1,080 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on RNR. UBS Group lifted their price objective on RenaissanceRe from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on RenaissanceRe from $285.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on RenaissanceRe from $268.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $269.00 price objective (up from $267.00) on shares of RenaissanceRe in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on RenaissanceRe in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $288.00 price objective for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, RenaissanceRe has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $282.09.

RenaissanceRe Trading Down 0.5%

RNR opened at $248.0210 on Monday. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a 12 month low of $219.00 and a 12 month high of $300.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.34, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $241.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $240.49.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The insurance provider reported $12.29 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.28 by $2.01. RenaissanceRe had a return on equity of 15.00% and a net margin of 15.44%.The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.96 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $12.41 EPS. RenaissanceRe’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 26.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RenaissanceRe Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. RenaissanceRe’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.09%.

RenaissanceRe Profile

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.