Prospector Partners LLC Has $18 Million Holdings in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Prospector Partners LLC grew its holdings in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) by 52.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 185,250 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 64,013 shares during the quarter. SouthState makes up 1.9% of Prospector Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Prospector Partners LLC owned 0.24% of SouthState worth $18,003,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Waldron Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of SouthState during the third quarter valued at $35,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in SouthState by 120.7% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 609 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of SouthState by 53.9% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 548 shares of the bank’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of SouthState in the second quarter valued at about $97,000. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in SouthState in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $133,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other SouthState news, CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 5,000 shares of SouthState stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $500,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 36,964 shares in the company, valued at $3,696,400. The trade was a 11.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Daniel E. Bockhorst sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $250,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,332,800. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

SouthState Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of SouthState stock opened at $112.25 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.92. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $100.24 and a 200-day moving average of $89.98. SouthState Co. has a 52-week low of $70.68 and a 52-week high of $114.26. The stock has a market cap of $8.56 billion, a PE ratio of 17.32 and a beta of 0.66.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The bank reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $426.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $429.47 million. SouthState had a net margin of 21.24% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.62 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that SouthState Co. will post 6.94 EPS for the current year.

SouthState Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. SouthState’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.33%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SSB has been the subject of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $120.00 price target (up from $115.00) on shares of SouthState in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on SouthState from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on SouthState from $111.00 to $103.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Hovde Group lowered SouthState from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Stephens raised their price target on SouthState from $101.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, SouthState currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.11.

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.