Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP Has $230,000 Stock Holdings in SouthState Co. $SSB

Key Points

• Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP reduced its stake in SouthState Co. by 60.8% in the first quarter, now holding 2,478 shares worth approximately $230,000.
• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its SouthState holdings by 31.2%, while several other institutional investors also boosted their stakes, leading to 89.76% institutional ownership of the stock.
• SouthState recently announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.60 per share, marking a 2.4% yield and up from the previous $0.54 dividend.

Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP lowered its holdings in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB - Free Report) by 60.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,478 shares of the bank's stock after selling 3,851 shares during the quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP's holdings in SouthState were worth $230,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bragg Financial Advisors Inc increased its stake in SouthState by 14.6% in the first quarter. Bragg Financial Advisors Inc now owns 3,181 shares of the bank's stock valued at $295,000 after acquiring an additional 405 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in SouthState by 0.3% in the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,479,298 shares of the bank's stock valued at $322,949,000 after acquiring an additional 11,728 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S bought a new stake in SouthState in the first quarter valued at about $67,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in SouthState by 23.3% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,371,315 shares of the bank's stock valued at $127,285,000 after acquiring an additional 259,557 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC increased its stake in SouthState by 81.5% in the first quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC now owns 688 shares of the bank's stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company's stock.

SouthState Trading Down 0.0%

NASDAQ SSB traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $101.74. The company's stock had a trading volume of 335,916 shares, compared to its average volume of 917,499. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $95.32 and a 200 day moving average of $92.46. SouthState Co. has a twelve month low of $77.74 and a twelve month high of $114.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.62 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

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

SouthState Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 8th were issued a $0.60 dividend. This is an increase from SouthState's previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 8th. SouthState's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.77%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on SSB. Citigroup reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $117.00 target price (up previously from $113.00) on shares of SouthState in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of SouthState from $130.00 to $120.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Truist Financial started coverage on shares of SouthState in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $106.00 target price on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of SouthState from $117.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of SouthState from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, SouthState presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $115.27.

Insider Activity at SouthState

In other SouthState news, insider Daniel E. Bockhorst sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total value of $498,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 31,785 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,165,786. This trade represents a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director G Stacy Smith bought 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $92.30 per share, for a total transaction of $230,750.00. Following the completion of 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 disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have acquired 8,338 shares of company stock worth $786,321 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.70% of the company's stock.

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.