Prospector Partners LLC Increases Holdings in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Prospector Partners LLC boosted its position in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) by 40.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 121,237 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 34,980 shares during the quarter. Prospector Partners LLC owned approximately 0.16% of SouthState worth $9,265,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SSB. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of SouthState by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,448,323 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $713,461,000 after purchasing an additional 54,147 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 371,987 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of SouthState by 1.6% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,802,373 shares of the bank’s stock worth $214,157,000 after buying an additional 45,176 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of SouthState by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,685,828 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $128,831,000 after acquiring an additional 39,492 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in SouthState by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,144,513 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $87,464,000 after acquiring an additional 21,160 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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 shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 36,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,696,400. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 36,964 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,696,400. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Daniel E. Bockhorst sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $250,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 33,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,332,800. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on SSB shares. Stephens boosted their price objective on SouthState from $88.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of SouthState from $95.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of SouthState from $109.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. DA Davidson increased 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, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on SouthState from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. One research 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $103.00.

SouthState Stock Performance

Shares of SSB opened at $98.78 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $93.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $83.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.53 billion, a PE ratio of 16.11 and a beta of 0.67. SouthState Co. has a one year low of $63.36 and a one year high of $102.82.

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

SouthState Increases Dividend

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

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.