SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) Cut to “Market Perform” at Hovde Group

Hovde Group downgraded shares of SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on SSB. Stephens increased their price target on SouthState from $101.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on SouthState from $111.00 to $103.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of SouthState from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective (up previously from $115.00) on shares of SouthState in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of SouthState in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $102.00 target price for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SouthState has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.11.

SouthState Stock Performance

Shares of SSB stock opened at $105.98 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.35 and a beta of 0.66. SouthState has a one year low of $70.68 and a one year high of $113.14. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $98.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $88.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.92.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The bank reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.26. SouthState had a return on equity of 9.41% and a net margin of 21.24%. The business had revenue of $426.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $429.47 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.62 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that SouthState will post 6.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were given a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.04%. SouthState’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.33%.

Insider Activity

In other SouthState news, insider Daniel E. Bockhorst sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $250,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,332,800. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 5,000 shares of SouthState stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 36,964 shares in the company, valued at $3,696,400. This represents a 11.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SouthState

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of SSB. Waldron Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in SouthState during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of SouthState by 120.7% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 609 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in SouthState by 53.9% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 548 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in SouthState in the 2nd quarter worth about $97,000. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in SouthState during the 2nd quarter worth about $133,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

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.