Millennium Management LLC Increases Stake in SouthState Co. $SSB

Millennium Management LLC increased its position in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) by 98.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 283,875 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 140,850 shares during the quarter. Millennium Management LLC owned about 0.28% of SouthState worth $26,349,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SSB. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in SouthState by 31.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,079,578 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,028,406,000 after acquiring an additional 2,637,786 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in SouthState by 34.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,556,410 shares of the bank’s stock worth $422,915,000 after acquiring an additional 1,164,348 shares during the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its holdings in SouthState by 2,221.8% in the 4th quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 727,341 shares of the bank’s stock worth $72,356,000 after acquiring an additional 696,014 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in SouthState in the 1st quarter worth about $62,230,000. Finally, FJ Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in SouthState by 286.3% in the 1st quarter. FJ Capital Management LLC now owns 556,226 shares of the bank’s stock worth $51,629,000 after acquiring an additional 412,242 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SSB. Barclays lifted their price objective on SouthState from $117.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Hovde Group lifted their target price on SouthState from $97.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on SouthState in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 target price for the company. DA Davidson lifted their target price on SouthState from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $117.00 target price (up previously from $113.00) on shares of SouthState in a report on Monday, July 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $115.27.

Insider Transactions at SouthState

In other news, insider Daniel E. Bockhorst sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total transaction of $498,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 31,785 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,165,786. The trade was a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Janet P. Froetscher acquired 3,338 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 30th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $97.31 per share, with a total value of $324,820.78. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 8,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $807,089.14. This represents a 67.35% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 8,338 shares of company stock valued at $786,321. 1.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

SouthState Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ SSB opened at $102.23 on Friday. SouthState Co. has a 12 month low of $77.74 and a 12 month 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 firm has a market capitalization of $10.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.69 and a beta of 0.74. The business has a 50-day moving average of $97.72 and a 200-day moving average of $92.43.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The bank reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.32. SouthState had a return on equity of 9.62% and a net margin of 22.38%.The company had revenue of $840.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $645.12 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.74 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that SouthState Co. will post 8.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 8th were issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 8th. This is a positive change from SouthState’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. SouthState’s payout ratio is presently 35.77%.

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.