Earnest Partners LLC Has $114.20 Million Stock Holdings in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Earnest Partners LLC increased its position in shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) by 2.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,494,332 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 40,879 shares during the quarter. Earnest Partners LLC owned 1.96% of SouthState worth $114,197,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in SouthState by 544.0% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 322 shares of the bank’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of SouthState in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $30,000. TFO Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of SouthState by 13,400.0% in the 4th quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 405 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of SouthState by 120.7% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 609 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of SouthState in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $97,000. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Hovde Group upped their price objective on SouthState from $97.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on SouthState from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on SouthState from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Truist Financial increased their price target on SouthState from $109.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Stephens increased their price target on SouthState from $88.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock 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 issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, SouthState currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $103.00.

SouthState Stock Down 2.6 %

NASDAQ:SSB opened at $94.84 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $93.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $83.91. SouthState Co. has a 52-week low of $63.36 and a 52-week high of $102.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $7.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.47 and a beta of 0.67.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $425.48 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $418.08 million. SouthState had a return on equity of 9.31% and a net margin of 20.84%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.63 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that SouthState Co. will post 6.69 EPS for the current year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a $0.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.28%. This is an increase from SouthState’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. SouthState’s dividend payout ratio is 35.24%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $500,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 36,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,696,400. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $500,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 36,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,696,400. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 33,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,332,800. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.