RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund interest lately.
If you’d ask most traders, hedge funds are perceived as slow, outdated investment vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation today, we at Insider Monkey look at the top tier of this group, about 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group oversees most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by paying attention to their top picks, we have unsheathed a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (check out a sample of our picks).
Just as important, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the marketplace. Obviously, there are lots of stimuli for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a glance at the key action regarding RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR).
Hedge fund activity in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR)
At Q1’s end, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 33% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.
Of the funds we track, SAC Capital Advisors, managed by Steven Cohen, holds the biggest position in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR). SAC Capital Advisors has a $126.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.6% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is SAC Subsidiary of CR Intrinsic Investors, with a $43.4 million position; 1.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedgies that are bullish include Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital and Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management.
Consequently, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. CR Intrinsic Investors, managed by SAC Subsidiary, assembled the biggest position in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR). CR Intrinsic Investors had 43.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management also made a $6.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new RNR investors: Anil Stevens and Glenn Shapiro’s Parameter Capital Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.
How are insiders trading RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR). These stocks are Markel Corporation (NYSE:MKL), White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd (NYSE:WTM), HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HCC), American Financial Group (NYSE:AFG), and Validus Holdings, Ltd. (NYSE:VR). This group of stocks are in the property & casualty insurance industry and their market caps are similar to RNR’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Markel Corporation (NYSE:MKL) | 15 | 3 | 1 |
| White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd (NYSE:WTM) | 9 | 1 | 2 |
| HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HCC) | 15 | 0 | 3 |
| American Financial Group (NYSE:AFG) | 13 | 0 | 9 |
| Validus Holdings, Ltd. (NYSE:VR) | 22 | 2 | 2 |
With the results exhibited by the aforementioned research, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) is no exception.
