Insider Selling: SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) CFO Sells $500,000.00 in Stock

SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $500,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 36,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,696,400. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

SouthState Stock Performance

Shares of SSB opened at $98.78 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $93.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $83.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a market capitalization of $7.53 billion, a PE ratio of 16.11 and a beta of 0.67. SouthState Co. has a 52-week low of $63.36 and a 52-week high of $102.82.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.25. SouthState had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 9.31%. The firm had revenue of $425.48 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $418.08 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.63 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that SouthState Co. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. This is an increase from SouthState’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. SouthState’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.24%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SouthState

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. SageView Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in SouthState during the 1st quarter valued at about $879,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in shares of SouthState by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 720,801 shares of the bank’s stock worth $60,872,000 after purchasing an additional 13,905 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of SouthState by 82.5% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 42,345 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,601,000 after purchasing an additional 19,138 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of SouthState by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,448,323 shares of the bank’s stock worth $713,461,000 after purchasing an additional 54,147 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SouthState during the 1st quarter worth about $2,754,000. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SSB has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of SouthState from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of SouthState from $95.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of SouthState from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Hovde Group upped their price objective on shares of SouthState from $97.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of SouthState from $109.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $103.00.

About SouthState

SouthState Corporation operates as the bank holding company for SouthState Bank, National Association that provides a range of banking services and products to individuals and companies. It offers checking accounts, savings deposits, interest-bearing transaction accounts, certificates of deposits, money market accounts, and other time deposits, as well as bond accounting, asset/liability consulting related activities, and other clearing and corporate checking account services.