SouthState Bank (NYSE:SSB) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of SouthState Bank (NYSE:SSB) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report released on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on SSB. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $125.00 target price on shares of SouthState Bank in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on SouthState Bank from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. UBS Group cut SouthState Bank from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $108.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of SouthState Bank from $123.00 to $118.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $116.00 price target on shares of SouthState Bank in a report on Monday, July 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $118.92.

SouthState Bank Stock Performance

SSB opened at $101.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.94. SouthState Bank has a 52-week low of $84.47 and a 52-week high of $112.20. The firm has a market cap of $9.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.64 and a beta of 0.78. The business’s fifty day moving average is $105.85 and its 200-day moving average is $99.94.

SouthState Bank (NYSE:SSB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $2.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.31 by $0.04. SouthState Bank had a net margin of 25.09% and a return on equity of 10.67%. The business had revenue of $672.67 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $676.83 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.30 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that SouthState Bank will post 9.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Bank Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 7th were paid a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. This is a boost from SouthState Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 7th. SouthState Bank’s payout ratio is 27.76%.

Insider Activity at SouthState Bank

In other news, CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.93, for a total transaction of $435,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 40,568 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,419,072.24. This represents a 8.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Brooks sold 24,650 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $2,711,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $869,000. This represents a 75.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 34,831 shares of company stock valued at $3,814,274. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SSB. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in SouthState Bank by 0.6% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 18,959 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of SouthState Bank by 0.7% in the first quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 18,045 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,670,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL boosted its stake in shares of SouthState Bank by 0.3% in the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 48,472 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,485,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the period. Sheets Smith Wealth Management grew its position in shares of SouthState Bank by 2.5% during the second quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management now owns 6,635 shares of the company’s stock worth $663,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC grew its position in shares of SouthState Bank by 5.0% during the first quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 3,641 shares of the company’s stock worth $337,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About SouthState Bank

SouthState Bank is a regional banking institution and the principal banking subsidiary of SouthState Corporation (NYSE: SSB). The bank provides financial products and services to individuals, businesses, institutions and municipalities, including checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, consumer and commercial loans, residential mortgages, and lines of credit.

Its business also includes commercial banking, treasury and cash-management services, equipment financing, small-business lending, and wealth-management and trust services.