SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) Hits New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) shares reached a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as $113.46 and last traded at $113.13, with a volume of 41433 shares. The stock had previously closed at $109.00.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on SSB shares. Stephens lifted their target price on SouthState from $101.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Citigroup initiated coverage on SouthState in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $102.00 target price for the company. Hovde Group downgraded shares of SouthState from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. 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 report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of SouthState from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.11.

SouthState Trading Up 2.7 %

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $100.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $89.98. The stock has a market cap of $8.54 billion, a PE ratio of 17.27 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The bank reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $426.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $429.47 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.62 EPS. SouthState’s revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that SouthState Co. will post 6.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a $0.54 dividend. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. SouthState’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at SouthState

In related news, insider Daniel E. Bockhorst sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $250,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 33,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,332,800. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of SSB. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in SouthState by 12.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,328,984 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $254,394,000 after acquiring an additional 371,987 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of SouthState by 64.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 265,578 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $25,809,000 after purchasing an additional 103,756 shares during the period. F M Investments LLC purchased a new stake in SouthState during the second quarter worth $7,303,000. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. acquired a new stake in SouthState during the third quarter valued at $9,086,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in SouthState by 7.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 987,849 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $95,999,000 after buying an additional 72,181 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.76% 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.