Advisors Preferred LLC Invests $428,000 in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR)

Advisors Preferred LLC purchased a new stake in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $428,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 415,366 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 25,773 shares during the period. Nepsis Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of RenaissanceRe by 32.9% in the fourth quarter. Nepsis Inc. now owns 128,983 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $32,092,000 after acquiring an additional 31,915 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of RenaissanceRe by 115.3% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 81,006 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $22,066,000 after acquiring an additional 43,384 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of RenaissanceRe by 12.3% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 80,773 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $22,003,000 after acquiring an additional 8,844 shares during the period. 99.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on RNR shares. 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. Evercore ISI upped their price target on RenaissanceRe from $229.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com cut RenaissanceRe from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $282.00 price target (down previously from $304.00) on shares of RenaissanceRe in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on RenaissanceRe from $288.00 to $277.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $279.90.

RenaissanceRe Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE:RNR opened at $239.49 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $255.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $257.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.84, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 1.42. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a 1 year low of $208.98 and a 1 year high of $300.00.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) last posted its earnings results 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 return on equity of 23.41% and a net margin of 15.99%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 29.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RenaissanceRe Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This is a positive change from RenaissanceRe’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. RenaissanceRe’s dividend payout ratio is 4.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at RenaissanceRe

In other RenaissanceRe news, EVP David E. Marra sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.16, for a total value of $254,160.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 79,392 shares of the company’s stock, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.