Is RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (RNR) A Good Stock To Buy?

Judging by the fact that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) has witnessed a declination in interest from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of hedgies that slashed their positions entirely heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP dropped the largest position of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, comprising about $17.4 million in stock. Greg Poole’s fund, Echo Street Capital Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $5.5 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 7 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR). These stocks are National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN), People’s United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBCT), Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV), and Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE:SLW). This group of stocks’ market values resemble RNR’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $259 million. That figure was $345 million in RNR’s case. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand People’s United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBCT) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard LYV might be a better candidate to consider a long position.