Empowered Funds LLC Buys New Shares in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 37,891 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $3,769,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in SouthState by 1.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,820,303 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $176,931,000 after purchasing an additional 31,340 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in SouthState by 7.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 987,849 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $95,999,000 after purchasing an additional 72,181 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in SouthState by 4.9% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 731,802 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $71,117,000 after purchasing an additional 34,194 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in SouthState by 3.7% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 711,853 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $69,178,000 after purchasing an additional 25,495 shares during the period. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC grew its holdings in SouthState by 3.8% in the third quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 622,084 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $60,454,000 after purchasing an additional 22,855 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on SSB shares. UBS Group started coverage on shares of SouthState in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $132.00 price objective for the company. Hovde Group downgraded shares of SouthState from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $120.00 price objective (up from $115.00) on shares of SouthState in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on shares of SouthState in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of SouthState from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $106.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, SouthState currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $115.44.

SouthState Trading Down 2.9 %

NASDAQ SSB opened at $103.20 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $102.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $99.85. SouthState Co. has a 52 week low of $70.68 and a 52 week high of $114.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $7.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.83 and a beta of 0.70.

SouthState Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.09%. SouthState’s payout ratio is currently 31.03%.

Insider Transactions at SouthState

In related news, CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 6,531 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.29, for a total value of $707,241.99. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 34,107 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,693,447.03. This represents a 16.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

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.