J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Reduces Position in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. decreased its position in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) by 10.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,430 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 510 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in SouthState were worth $339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of SSB. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of SouthState in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $75,485,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of SouthState by 26.8% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,208,224 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $186,485,000 after purchasing an additional 466,144 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of SouthState by 270.2% in the first quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 353,700 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,075,000 after purchasing an additional 258,168 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of SouthState by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 620,510 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $52,402,000 after purchasing an additional 149,745 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of SouthState by 24.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 596,520 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $50,376,000 after purchasing an additional 116,313 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at SouthState

In related news, insider Daniel E. Bockhorst sold 2,500 shares of the company’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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,332,800. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

SouthState Price Performance

NASDAQ SSB opened at $99.10 on Thursday. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average price is $92.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $83.41. SouthState Co. has a 1 year low of $63.36 and a 1 year high of $102.59. The company has a market cap of $7.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.17 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. SouthState had a return on equity of 9.31% and a net margin of 20.84%. The firm had revenue of $425.48 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $418.08 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.63 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that SouthState Co. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.54 dividend. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.18%. This is an increase from SouthState’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. SouthState’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SSB has been the subject of a number of research reports. DA Davidson boosted their price target on SouthState from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of SouthState from $81.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective 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. Stephens boosted their price objective on shares of SouthState from $88.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Hovde Group upped their price target on SouthState from $97.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. One research 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.75.

SouthState Profile

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.