Comparing Origin Bancorp (NASDAQ:OBNK) & SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB)

Origin Bancorp (NASDAQ:OBNK) and SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

47.2% of Origin Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of SouthState shares are held by institutional investors. 6.2% of Origin Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of SouthState shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Origin Bancorp has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SouthState has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Origin Bancorp and SouthState’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Origin Bancorp	20.47%	10.45%	0.97%
SouthState	22.38%	9.62%	1.21%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Origin Bancorp and SouthState, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Origin Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00
SouthState	0	1	8	2	3.09

SouthState has a consensus target price of $115.27, indicating a potential upside of 14.35%. Given SouthState’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe SouthState is more favorable than Origin Bancorp.

Dividends

Origin Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. SouthState pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Origin Bancorp pays out 18.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SouthState pays out 35.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Origin Bancorp has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years and SouthState has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years. SouthState is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Origin Bancorp and SouthState”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Origin Bancorp	$347.14 million	3.14	$87.71 million	$3.21	11.03
SouthState	$2.12 billion	4.81	$534.78 million	$6.71	15.02

SouthState has higher revenue and earnings than Origin Bancorp. Origin Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SouthState, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

SouthState beats Origin Bancorp on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Origin Bancorp

Origin Bancorp, Inc. is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of financial services to small and medium-sized businesses, municipalities, high net worth individuals, and retail clients. The firm’s products and services include lending, deposits, mortgage banking, and insurance. It also offers other banking services such as Internet banking and voice response information, mobile applications, cash management, overdraft protection, direct deposit, safe deposit boxes, U.S. savings bonds, and automatic account transfers. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Ruston, LA.

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. The company also offers commercial real estate loans, residential real estate loans, commercial, and industrial loans, as well as consumer loans, including auto, boat, and personal installment, as well as business, agriculture, real estate-secured (mortgage), home improvement, and manufactured housing loans. In addition, it provides debit card, mobile services, funds transfer products and services, and treasury management services comprising merchant, automated clearing house, lock-box, remote deposit capture, and other treasury services, as well as asset and wealth management, and other fiduciary and private banking services. Further, the company offers safe deposit boxes, bank money orders, wire transfer, brokerage services, and alternative investment products, including annuities, mutual funds, and trust management services; and credit cards, letters of credit, and home equity lines of credit. The company also serves its customers through online, mobile, and telephone banking platforms. The company was formerly known as First Financial Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to SouthState Corporation in July 2013. SouthState Corporation was founded in 1933 and is headquartered in Winter Haven, Florida.