Choreo LLC Makes New Investment in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Choreo LLC acquired a new position in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,414 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $410,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of SouthState during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $75,485,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of SouthState by 54.3% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 11,189 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $945,000 after acquiring an additional 3,936 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of SouthState by 26.8% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,208,224 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $186,485,000 after acquiring an additional 466,144 shares during the period. InterOcean Capital Group LLC bought a new position in shares of SouthState during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,082,000. Finally, Prospector Partners LLC grew its position in shares of SouthState by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Prospector Partners LLC now owns 77,032 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,505,000 after acquiring an additional 835 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

SouthState Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ SSB opened at $97.69 on Tuesday. SouthState Co. has a 1 year low of $63.36 and a 1 year high of $101.32. The stock has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.79 and a beta of 0.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $91.43 and a 200 day moving average of $83.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.25. SouthState had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 9.31%. The business had revenue of $425.48 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $418.08 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.63 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that SouthState Co. will post 6.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. This is a boost from SouthState’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. SouthState’s payout ratio is presently 35.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on SSB. Raymond James raised shares of SouthState from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of SouthState from $95.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of SouthState from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of SouthState from $81.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Stephens raised their price objective on shares of SouthState from $88.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.75.

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.