Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Buys 6,980 Shares of SouthState Co. $SSB

Key Points

• Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its stake in SouthState Co. by 4.4%, acquiring an additional 6,980 shares and owning approximately $15.08 million worth of stock.
• Wall Street analysts have a positive outlook on SouthState, with a consensus target price of $117.08 and multiple firms upgrading their ratings to "buy" or "overweight."
• SouthState recently announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.60 per share, representing an annualized yield of 2.4%.

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH raised its stake in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB - Free Report) by 4.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 163,849 shares of the bank's stock after acquiring an additional 6,980 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH owned approximately 0.16% of SouthState worth $15,079,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of SouthState in the first quarter worth about $33,000. Flaharty Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of SouthState in the first quarter worth about $45,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of SouthState by 577.4% in the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 569 shares of the bank's stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 485 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its holdings in shares of SouthState by 181.7% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 586 shares of the bank's stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 378 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SouthState by 81.5% in the first quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC now owns 688 shares of the bank's stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SSB has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of SouthState from $117.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Hovde Group raised their price objective on shares of SouthState from $97.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of SouthState from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Cowen initiated coverage on shares of SouthState in a report on Wednesday. They issued a "buy" rating for the company. Finally, National Bankshares set a $127.00 price objective on shares of SouthState in a report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $117.08.

Insider Buying and Selling at SouthState

In other news, Director Janet P. Froetscher bought 3,338 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $97.31 per share, with a total value of $324,820.78. Following the transaction, the director owned 8,294 shares of the company's stock, valued at $807,089.14. This trade represents a 67.35% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director G Stacy Smith bought 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $92.30 per share, with a total value of $230,750.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 39,546 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,650,095.80. This trade represents a 6.75% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 8,338 shares of company stock valued at $786,321. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

SouthState Stock Performance

NASDAQ:SSB opened at $101.15 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.24 billion, a PE ratio of 14.53 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $98.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. SouthState Co. has a fifty-two week low of $77.74 and a fifty-two week high of $114.26.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The bank reported $2.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.98 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $840.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $645.12 million. SouthState had a net margin of 22.38% and a return on equity of 9.62%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.74 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that SouthState Co. will post 8.12 earnings per share for the current year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 8th were given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 8th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from SouthState's previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. SouthState's payout ratio is currently 35.77%.

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.

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