Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Buys Shares of 17,525 SouthState Bank Corporation $SSB

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of SouthState Bank Corporation (NYSE:SSB) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 17,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,649,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of SouthState Bank by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,937,359 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,029,315,000 after acquiring an additional 161,928 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of SouthState Bank by 1.9% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,666,617 shares of the company’s stock worth $461,392,000 after buying an additional 84,812 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of SouthState Bank by 35.6% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,591,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $157,306,000 after buying an additional 418,031 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of SouthState Bank by 269.4% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,219,079 shares of the company’s stock worth $120,530,000 after buying an additional 889,042 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of SouthState Bank by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,155,073 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,843,000 after buying an additional 35,184 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of SouthState Bank from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 27th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of SouthState Bank from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded SouthState Bank from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, May 17th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on SouthState Bank from $110.00 to $108.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Hovde Group increased their price target on SouthState Bank from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, SouthState Bank has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $118.62.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David R. Brooks sold 14,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.39, for a total value of $1,406,977.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 12,700 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,249,553. This represents a 52.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

SouthState Bank Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of SSB opened at $94.98 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. SouthState Bank Corporation has a 12-month low of $84.47 and a 12-month high of $108.46. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $94.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $95.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.25 and a beta of 0.72.

SouthState Bank (NYSE:SSB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.21 by $0.07. SouthState Bank had a net margin of 24.75% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The firm had revenue of $661.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $669.29 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.87 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that SouthState Bank Corporation will post 9.49 EPS for the current year.

SouthState Bank Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Friday, May 8th were issued a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 8th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. SouthState Bank’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

About SouthState Bank

SouthState Bank (NYSE: SSB) is a bank holding company headquartered in Winter Haven, Florida, that provides a range of commercial and retail banking services. Through its subsidiary, SouthState Bank, the company serves businesses, institutions and individuals with deposit, lending and treasury management solutions. Its core business lines include commercial and industrial loans, commercial real estate lending, consumer mortgages and home equity loans.

In addition to traditional lending and deposit products, SouthState Bank offers specialized services such as treasury and cash management, merchant services, payment solutions and online banking.