Blueshift Asset Management LLC Makes New Investment in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR)

Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,203 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $299,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its holdings in RenaissanceRe by 10.8% in 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 buying an additional 182,530 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. acquired a new stake in RenaissanceRe during the third quarter worth 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 purchasing an additional 8,844 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in RenaissanceRe by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 920,814 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $250,892,000 after purchasing an additional 25,773 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. grew 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 buying an additional 23,956 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.97% of the company’s stock.

RenaissanceRe Price Performance

Shares of RNR opened at $236.75 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $208.98 and a fifty-two week high of $300.00. The company has a market cap of $11.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.76, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.38. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $241.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $257.08.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The insurance provider reported $8.06 earnings per share (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%. On average, research analysts forecast that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 26.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RenaissanceRe Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on RNR shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of RenaissanceRe from $318.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of RenaissanceRe in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $282.00 price objective (down from $304.00) on shares of RenaissanceRe in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays cut shares of RenaissanceRe from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $284.00 to $234.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $279.90.

Insider Activity at RenaissanceRe

In other RenaissanceRe news, EVP David E. Marra sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $254.16, for a total value of $254,160.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 79,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,178,270.72. This represents a 1.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

RenaissanceRe Company 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.