Alliancebernstein L.P. Has $27.85 Million Stock Holdings in SouthState Co. $SSB

Key Points

• Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in SouthState Co. by 44.5% in Q1, owning about 0.30% of the company, valued at $27,850,000.
• Analysts are optimistic about SouthState, with two Strong Buy ratings, eight Buy ratings, and a consensus price target of $115.27.
• SouthState recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.60 per share, an increase from the previous $0.54, representing an annual yield of 2.4%.

Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB - Free Report) by 44.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 300,047 shares of the bank's stock after buying an additional 92,342 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned 0.30% of SouthState worth $27,850,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its holdings in SouthState by 14.2% in the 1st 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 lifted its holdings 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 during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in SouthState by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,547 shares of the bank's stock worth $253,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. FourThought Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in SouthState by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. FourThought Financial Partners LLC now owns 3,070 shares of the bank's stock worth $285,000 after purchasing 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on SSB. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on SouthState in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. They issued a "buy" rating and a $110.00 target price for the company. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on SouthState from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Hovde Group upped 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. Citigroup reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $117.00 price target (up from $113.00) on shares of SouthState in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on SouthState from $117.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $115.27.

Insider Transactions at SouthState

In other SouthState news, Director Janet P. Froetscher bought 3,338 shares of SouthState stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $97.31 per share, for a total transaction of $324,820.78. Following the purchase, the director owned 8,294 shares of the company's stock, valued at $807,089.14. The trade was a 67.35% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Daniel E. Bockhorst sold 5,000 shares of SouthState stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total value of $498,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 31,785 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,165,786. This represents a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders acquired 8,338 shares of company stock worth $786,321. 1.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

SouthState Stock Down 0.4%

SSB stock traded down $0.44 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $100.81. The company had a trading volume of 524,090 shares, compared to its average volume of 910,067. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $97.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.35. The company has a market capitalization of $10.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.48 and a beta of 0.74. SouthState Co. has a 52 week low of $77.74 and a 52 week high of $114.26.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.98 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $840.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $645.12 million. SouthState had a return on equity of 9.62% and a net margin of 22.38%.During the same period last year, the company earned $1.74 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that SouthState Co. will post 8.12 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 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 8th were paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 8th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend 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%.

SouthState 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.