Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Trims Stake in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. $RNR

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. cut its stake in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) by 5.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 78,769 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 4,144 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in RenaissanceRe were worth $19,133,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. LPL Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of RenaissanceRe by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 8,035 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,928,000 after purchasing an additional 910 shares during the period. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in RenaissanceRe by 0.8% in the first quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 8,047 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,931,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of RenaissanceRe by 15.3% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 763,210 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $183,175,000 after acquiring an additional 101,060 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc raised its position in shares of RenaissanceRe by 151.6% in the first quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 27,320 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,557,000 after acquiring an additional 16,463 shares during the period. Finally, Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of RenaissanceRe during the 1st quarter worth about $7,123,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.97% of the company’s stock.

RenaissanceRe Stock Performance

NYSE RNR opened at $272.11 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $12.55 billion, a PE ratio of 7.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.26. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $259.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $249.14. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a 1-year low of $219.00 and a 1-year high of $274.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The insurance provider reported $15.62 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.49 by $6.13. RenaissanceRe had a return on equity of 16.83% and a net margin of 14.23%.The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $10.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 26.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

RenaissanceRe Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. RenaissanceRe’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.45%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on RNR. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on RenaissanceRe in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on RenaissanceRe from $278.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Barclays set a $278.00 target price on RenaissanceRe in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research upgraded RenaissanceRe from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of RenaissanceRe in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $256.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $285.92.

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.