Franklin Resources Inc. Purchases Shares of 4,363 RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR)

Franklin Resources Inc. acquired a new position in shares of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 4,363 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,086,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its stake in RenaissanceRe by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 5,167 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $1,286,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its position in RenaissanceRe by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 7,300 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,816,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of RenaissanceRe during the fourth quarter worth about $1,933,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of RenaissanceRe during the 4th quarter worth approximately $173,530,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in RenaissanceRe by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 120,718 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $30,036,000 after acquiring an additional 4,131 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.97% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of RenaissanceRe from $277.00 to $271.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on RenaissanceRe from $266.00 to $265.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Barclays dropped their price target on RenaissanceRe from $234.00 to $231.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of RenaissanceRe from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $284.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of RenaissanceRe from $318.00 to $294.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $280.80.

RenaissanceRe Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of RNR traded up $3.24 on Friday, hitting $241.09. 429,115 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 417,883. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a 1 year low of $208.98 and a 1 year high of $300.00. The stock's 50 day moving average is $237.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $253.17.

RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The insurance provider reported $8.06 EPS 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 predict that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 26.04 earnings per share for the current year.

RenaissanceRe Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. This is an increase from RenaissanceRe's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. RenaissanceRe's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.57%.

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.