Magnetar Financial LLC Takes $3.04 Million Position in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR)

Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 12,213 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,039,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its position in shares of RenaissanceRe by 51.3% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 121 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of RenaissanceRe by 40.0% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 175 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in RenaissanceRe by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,645 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,156,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in RenaissanceRe by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,530 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AMG National Trust Bank increased its holdings in RenaissanceRe by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 4,688 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,166,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. 99.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on RNR. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of RenaissanceRe in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on RenaissanceRe from $318.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on RenaissanceRe from $280.00 to $284.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Barclays lowered RenaissanceRe from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $284.00 to $234.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on RenaissanceRe from $265.00 to $245.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $279.90.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP David E. Marra sold 1,000 shares of RenaissanceRe 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 79,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,178,270.72. This trade represents a 1.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

RenaissanceRe Stock Performance

Shares of RNR opened at $236.07 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $11.63 billion, a PE ratio of 6.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $241.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $257.20. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a 12-month low of $208.98 and a 12-month high of $300.00.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) last issued its quarterly 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 26.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RenaissanceRe Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend 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’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.57%.

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.