MetLife Investment Management LLC Sells 1,386 Shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

MetLife Investment Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 81,215 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 1,386 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in SouthState were worth $7,892,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in SouthState by 234.5% during the 2nd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 26,208 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,003,000 after purchasing an additional 18,374 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of SouthState by 3.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 711,853 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $69,178,000 after buying an additional 25,495 shares during the last quarter. BIP Wealth LLC grew its holdings in SouthState by 605.2% during the third quarter. BIP Wealth LLC now owns 31,422 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,054,000 after buying an additional 26,966 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its position in SouthState by 14.4% in the 2nd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 123,482 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,437,000 after buying an additional 15,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in SouthState by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. now owns 201,724 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $15,416,000 after acquiring an additional 30,234 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of SouthState from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of SouthState from $111.00 to $103.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $120.00 target price (up previously from $115.00) on shares of SouthState in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Stephens boosted their target price on SouthState from $101.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on SouthState in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.11.

SouthState Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of SSB stock opened at $110.69 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.17 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a 50 day moving average of $101.21 and a 200-day moving average of $90.70. SouthState Co. has a 12-month low of $70.68 and a 12-month high of $114.26.

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

SouthState Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. SouthState’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other SouthState news, CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $500,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 36,964 shares in the company, valued at $3,696,400. This represents 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 SouthState stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $250,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 33,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,332,800. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.26% 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.