RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) Price Target Lowered to $245.00 at Morgan Stanley

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) had its target price reduced by Morgan Stanley from $265.00 to $245.00 in a research report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on RenaissanceRe from $280.00 to $284.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on RenaissanceRe from $229.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $282.00 target price (down from $304.00) on shares of RenaissanceRe in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of RenaissanceRe from $310.00 to $318.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of RenaissanceRe in a research note on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, RenaissanceRe presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $283.45.

RenaissanceRe Trading Down 2.5 %

NYSE RNR opened at $232.52 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 0.44. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $259.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $257.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.43. RenaissanceRe has a one year low of $208.98 and a one year high of $300.00.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The insurance provider reported $8.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.94 by $1.12. RenaissanceRe had a net margin of 15.99% and a return on equity of 23.51%. Research analysts expect that RenaissanceRe will post 34.22 earnings per share for the current year.

RenaissanceRe Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. RenaissanceRe’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.45%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP David E. Marra sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 79,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,178,270.72. This represents a 1.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RNR. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its stake in RenaissanceRe by 32.4% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 1,697,636 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $461,679,000 after purchasing an additional 415,366 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of RenaissanceRe by 2.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 920,814 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $250,892,000 after buying an additional 25,773 shares during the period. Nepsis Inc. lifted its position in shares of RenaissanceRe by 32.9% during the 4th quarter. Nepsis Inc. now owns 128,983 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $32,092,000 after buying an additional 31,915 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of RenaissanceRe by 115.3% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 81,006 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $22,066,000 after acquiring an additional 43,384 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in RenaissanceRe by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 80,773 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $22,003,000 after acquiring an additional 8,844 shares during the last quarter. 99.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.