Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New Investment in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 21,400 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,807,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Creative Planning raised its position in shares of SouthState by 2.8% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 5,466 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $422,000 after buying an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its position in shares of SouthState by 37.4% in the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 591 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management raised its position in shares of SouthState by 3.0% in the third quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management now owns 5,863 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $395,000 after buying an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of SouthState by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 3,608 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $305,000 after buying an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Red Spruce Capital LLC raised its position in shares of SouthState by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Red Spruce Capital LLC now owns 29,465 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,488,000 after buying an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SSB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James cut shares of SouthState from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of SouthState from $90.00 to $89.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 1st. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 price objective (up from $96.00) on shares of SouthState in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of SouthState from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $87.80.

SouthState Stock Performance

NASDAQ SSB opened at $76.61 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $81.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.36. The stock has a market cap of $5.84 billion, a PE ratio of 11.86 and a beta of 0.74. SouthState Co. has a fifty-two week low of $59.51 and a fifty-two week high of $87.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.89.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $419.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $419.08 million. SouthState had a net margin of 22.15% and a return on equity of 9.85%. On average, equities analysts expect that SouthState Co. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.72%. SouthState’s payout ratio is presently 32.20%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Richard Iv Murray sold 4,900 shares of SouthState stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.85, for a total transaction of $401,065.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 58,968 shares in the company, valued at $4,826,530.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, President Richard Iv Murray sold 4,900 shares of SouthState stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.85, for a total transaction of $401,065.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 58,968 shares in the company, valued at $4,826,530.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Renee R. Brooks sold 4,025 shares of SouthState stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.62, for a total transaction of $344,620.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 31,747 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,718,178.14. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 11,925 shares of company stock valued at $988,686. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

SouthState Company 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.