William E. V. Matthews Sells 5,000 Shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) Stock

SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $500,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 36,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,696,400. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

SouthState Stock Down 2.8 %

SouthState stock opened at $98.78 on Friday. SouthState Co. has a fifty-two week low of $63.36 and a fifty-two week high of $102.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $93.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $83.64. The stock has a market cap of $7.53 billion, a PE ratio of 16.11 and a beta of 0.67.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $425.48 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $418.08 million. SouthState had a return on equity of 9.31% and a net margin of 20.84%. SouthState’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.63 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that SouthState Co. will post 6.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This is a positive change from SouthState’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.19%. SouthState’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.24%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SouthState

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SSB. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in SouthState during the second quarter worth about $97,000. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of SouthState by 14.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 19,869 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,518,000 after purchasing an additional 2,533 shares during the last quarter. William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of SouthState in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $151,000. Creative Planning lifted its stake in SouthState by 18.3% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 14,365 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,098,000 after purchasing an additional 2,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Algert Global LLC bought a new position in SouthState during the second quarter valued at $587,000. 89.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on SSB shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on SouthState from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Stephens upped their price objective on shares of SouthState from $88.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of SouthState from $95.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of SouthState from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of SouthState from $109.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $103.00.

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.