SouthState (SSB) Competitors

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) and SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, media sentiment, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk and community ranking.

Do analysts prefer FITB or SSB?

Fifth Third Bancorp currently has a consensus price target of $44.81, indicating a potential downside of 5.09%. SouthState has a consensus price target of $105.11, indicating a potential downside of 5.25%. Given Fifth Third Bancorp's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Fifth Third Bancorp is more favorable than SouthState.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fifth Third Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.53
SouthState	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.44

Is FITB or SSB more profitable?

SouthState has a net margin of 21.24% compared to Fifth Third Bancorp's net margin of 16.58%. Fifth Third Bancorp's return on equity of 14.58% beat SouthState's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fifth Third Bancorp	16.58%	14.58%	1.19%
SouthState	21.24%	9.41%	1.17%

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in FITB or SSB?

83.8% of Fifth Third Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of SouthState shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Fifth Third Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of SouthState shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, FITB or SSB?

Fifth Third Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than SouthState. Fifth Third Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SouthState, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fifth Third Bancorp	$12.64B	2.50	$2.35B	$3.01	15.68
SouthState	$2.23B	3.79	$494.31M	$6.48	17.12

Does the media refer more to FITB or SSB?

In the previous week, Fifth Third Bancorp had 7 more articles in the media than SouthState. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Fifth Third Bancorp and 6 mentions for SouthState. SouthState's average media sentiment score of 1.32 beat Fifth Third Bancorp's score of 0.89 indicating that SouthState is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Fifth Third Bancorp	7 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
SouthState	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, FITB or SSB?

Fifth Third Bancorp has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SouthState has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer FITB or SSB?

Fifth Third Bancorp received 251 more outperform votes than SouthState when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.39% of users gave SouthState an outperform vote while only 56.55% of users gave Fifth Third Bancorp an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Fifth Third Bancorp	Outperform Votes 747 56.55%	Underperform Votes 574 43.45%
SouthState	Outperform Votes 496 61.39%	Underperform Votes 312 38.61%

Is FITB or SSB a better dividend stock?

Fifth Third Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. SouthState pays an annual dividend of $2.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Fifth Third Bancorp pays out 49.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SouthState pays out 33.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Fifth Third Bancorp has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years and SouthState has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Fifth Third Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Fifth Third Bancorp beats SouthState on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.