697,441 Shares in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) Acquired by Norges Bank

Norges Bank purchased a new position in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 697,441 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $173,530,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in RNR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in RenaissanceRe by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 120,718 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $30,036,000 after purchasing an additional 4,131 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp purchased a new position in shares of RenaissanceRe during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,177,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in RenaissanceRe in the fourth quarter worth about $240,000. Stevens Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in RenaissanceRe in the fourth quarter worth about $206,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in RenaissanceRe by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 7,125 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,773,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays lowered RenaissanceRe from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $284.00 to $234.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of RenaissanceRe from $288.00 to $277.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of RenaissanceRe from $437.00 to $426.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $282.00 price objective (down previously from $304.00) on shares of RenaissanceRe in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of RenaissanceRe from $318.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, RenaissanceRe currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $283.40.

RenaissanceRe Price Performance

Shares of RNR opened at $242.46 on Monday. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a twelve month low of $208.98 and a twelve month high of $300.00. The company has a market capitalization of $11.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.38. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $239.76 and a 200 day moving average of $256.53. 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 (NYSE:RNR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The insurance provider reported $8.06 EPS for the quarter, topping 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, equities research analysts anticipate that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 26.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RenaissanceRe Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.40 dividend. This is a positive change from RenaissanceRe’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. RenaissanceRe’s payout ratio is 4.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at RenaissanceRe

In other news, EVP David E. Marra sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 79,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,178,270.72. The trade was a 1.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company 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.