SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $103.00.

SSB has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Hovde Group boosted their price target on SouthState from $97.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Stephens boosted their price target on SouthState from $88.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on SouthState from $95.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on SouthState from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on SouthState from $109.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th.

SouthState Stock Performance

Shares of SouthState stock opened at $94.84 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.23 billion, a PE ratio of 15.47 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $93.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $83.91. SouthState has a one year low of $63.36 and a one year high of $102.82.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.25. SouthState had a return on equity of 9.31% and a net margin of 20.84%. The business had revenue of $425.48 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $418.08 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.63 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that SouthState will post 6.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.54 dividend. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This is a positive change from SouthState’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. SouthState’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other SouthState news, CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $500,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 36,964 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,696,400. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Daniel E. Bockhorst sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $250,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,332,800. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 36,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,696,400. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of SouthState

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SSB. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of SouthState by 544.0% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 322 shares of the bank’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of SouthState during the 1st quarter worth $30,000. TFO Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of SouthState by 13,400.0% during the 4th quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 405 shares of the bank’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of SouthState by 120.7% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 609 shares of the bank’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of SouthState during the 2nd quarter worth $97,000. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.