Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Acquires 22,074 Shares of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. lifted its holdings in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) by 35.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 84,798 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 22,074 shares during the quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in RenaissanceRe were worth $21,099,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 182,530 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. acquired a new stake in RenaissanceRe in the third quarter worth about $3,684,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in RenaissanceRe by 12.3% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 80,773 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $22,003,000 after purchasing an additional 8,844 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 25,773 shares during the period. Finally, Citigroup Inc. increased its position in RenaissanceRe by 367.4% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 30,476 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $8,302,000 after purchasing an additional 23,956 shares during the period. 99.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at RenaissanceRe

In other RenaissanceRe news, EVP David E. Marra sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.16, for a total value of $254,160.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 79,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,178,270.72. The trade was a 1.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

RNR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays lowered 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. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $282.00 price objective (down from $304.00) on shares of RenaissanceRe in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on RenaissanceRe from $318.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on RenaissanceRe from $288.00 to $277.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on RenaissanceRe from $280.00 to $284.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Two 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $279.90.

RenaissanceRe Price Performance

Shares of RNR opened at $240.88 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $241.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $257.35. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a 52-week low of $208.98 and a 52-week high of $300.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.86 billion, a PE ratio of 6.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.38.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The insurance provider reported $8.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. Sell-side analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This is a boost from RenaissanceRe’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. RenaissanceRe’s payout ratio is presently 4.57%.

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.