New York State Common Retirement Fund Boosts Position in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR)

New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 175,899 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,701 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.34% of RenaissanceRe worth $34,476,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in RenaissanceRe by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,417,518 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,072,235,000 after purchasing an additional 120,302 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased its position in RenaissanceRe by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,052,716 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $406,390,000 after purchasing an additional 135,861 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in RenaissanceRe by 20.7% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,451,530 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $287,287,000 after purchasing an additional 249,196 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc increased its position in RenaissanceRe by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 1,104,756 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $218,653,000 after purchasing an additional 77,319 shares during the period. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP increased its position in RenaissanceRe by 97.9% during the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,088,978 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $213,440,000 after purchasing an additional 538,636 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.97% of the company’s stock.

RenaissanceRe Price Performance

NYSE:RNR opened at $219.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. The firm has a market cap of $11.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $227.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $216.09. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a 1-year low of $174.22 and a 1-year high of $239.42.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The insurance provider reported $11.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.13 by $3.64. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.83 billion. RenaissanceRe had a net margin of 28.04% and a return on equity of 26.93%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $7.33 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 34.41 EPS for the current year.

RenaissanceRe Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from RenaissanceRe’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. RenaissanceRe’s dividend payout ratio is currently 3.05%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP David E. Marra sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.00, for a total value of $171,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 79,699 shares in the company, valued at $18,251,071. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, Director Carol P. Sanders sold 880 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.59, for a total value of $200,279.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,363 shares in the company, valued at $1,220,565.17. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP David E. Marra sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.00, for a total transaction of $171,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 79,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,251,071. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 4,130 shares of company stock worth $958,429 over the last three months. Insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RNR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of RenaissanceRe in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of RenaissanceRe from $213.00 to $216.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of RenaissanceRe from $216.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of RenaissanceRe from $229.00 to $238.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of RenaissanceRe from $204.00 to $237.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $247.89.

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.