Sciencast Management LP Invests $306,000 in SouthState Co. $SSB

Sciencast Management LP purchased a new position in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,300 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $306,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of SSB. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of SouthState by 31.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,079,578 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,028,406,000 after buying an additional 2,637,786 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in SouthState by 34.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,556,410 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $422,915,000 after buying an additional 1,164,348 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in SouthState by 0.3% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,479,298 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $322,949,000 after buying an additional 11,728 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in SouthState by 14.4% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,769,537 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $164,249,000 after buying an additional 222,818 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in SouthState by 38.2% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,437,262 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $133,407,000 after buying an additional 397,371 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays raised their target price on SouthState from $117.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. DA Davidson raised their target price on SouthState from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $117.00 target price (up previously from $113.00) on shares of SouthState in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on SouthState in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 target price for the company. Finally, Truist Financial initiated coverage on SouthState in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $106.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, SouthState currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $115.27.

Insider Buying and Selling at SouthState

In other news, Director Janet P. Froetscher bought 3,338 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $97.31 per share, with a total value of $324,820.78. Following the purchase, the director owned 8,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $807,089.14. This represents a 67.35% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director G Stacy Smith bought 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $92.30 per share, with a total value of $230,750.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 39,546 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,650,095.80. This trade represents a 6.75% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders acquired 8,338 shares of company stock worth $786,321. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

SouthState Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of SSB opened at $100.98 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $97.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $92.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. SouthState Co. has a 52-week low of $77.74 and a 52-week high of $114.26. The company has a market cap of $10.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.51 and a beta of 0.74.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The bank reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $840.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $645.12 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.74 EPS. Analysts predict that SouthState Co. will post 8.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 8th were given a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 8th. This is a positive change from SouthState’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. SouthState’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.77%.

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.