BNP Paribas Financial Markets Increases Position in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) by 10.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 12,447 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,186 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in RenaissanceRe were worth $3,097,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new position in RenaissanceRe during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in RenaissanceRe during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its position in RenaissanceRe by 51.3% during the fourth 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. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in RenaissanceRe by 1,587.5% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 135 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of RenaissanceRe by 71.4% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 156 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. 99.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

RenaissanceRe Stock Performance

RNR opened at $242.88 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $11.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $239.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $249.29. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a 1 year low of $208.98 and a 1 year high of $300.00.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported ($1.49) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.32) by ($1.17). The company had revenue of $3.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.36 billion. RenaissanceRe had a return on equity of 23.41% and a net margin of 15.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $12.18 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 26.04 earnings per share for the current year.

RenaissanceRe Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. RenaissanceRe’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.10%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on RNR. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of RenaissanceRe in a report on Thursday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of RenaissanceRe from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $284.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of RenaissanceRe from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $235.00 to $275.00 in a report on Friday, April 25th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of RenaissanceRe from $437.00 to $426.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of RenaissanceRe from $279.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $282.60.

Insider Activity at RenaissanceRe

In other RenaissanceRe news, CAO James Christopher Fraser sold 332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.54, for a total value of $82,847.28. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,154 shares in the company, valued at $6,776,009.16. The trade was a 1.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.