SouthState Co. $SSB Shares Acquired by Intech Investment Management LLC

Key Points

• Intech Investment Management LLC increased its stake in SouthState Co. by 48.4% during the first quarter, owning 46,120 shares valued at approximately $4.28 million.
• SouthState recently reported its quarterly earnings, with earnings per share of $2.30, exceeding analysts' estimates, and announced an increase in its dividend to $0.60 per share.
• Wall Street analysts have generally rated SouthState positively, with a consensus target price of $115.27 and several analysts issuing "buy" ratings.

Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB - Free Report) by 48.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 46,120 shares of the bank's stock after buying an additional 15,034 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC's holdings in SouthState were worth $4,281,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in SouthState by 14.2% during the first quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 943 shares of the bank's stock worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in SouthState by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,368 shares of the bank's stock worth $220,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in SouthState by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,547 shares of the bank's stock valued at $253,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. FourThought Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SouthState by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. FourThought Financial Partners LLC now owns 3,070 shares of the bank's stock valued at $285,000 after buying an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Liberty One Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in SouthState by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC now owns 8,222 shares of the bank's stock worth $763,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on SSB shares. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on SouthState from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Hovde Group increased their price target on SouthState from $97.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on SouthState in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. They set a "buy" rating and a $110.00 price target for the company. Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $117.00 price objective (up from $113.00) on shares of SouthState in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on SouthState from $117.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SouthState presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $115.27.

SouthState Stock Down 0.9%

SSB stock opened at $101.31 on Friday. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $97.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $92.44. SouthState Co. has a fifty-two week low of $77.74 and a fifty-two week high of $114.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $10.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.56 and a beta of 0.74.

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

SouthState Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 8th were issued 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 an increase from SouthState's previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. SouthState's dividend payout ratio is presently 35.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

SouthState Company Profile

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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