Franklin Resources Inc. Increases Holdings in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) by 3.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,773,757 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 55,587 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned about 2.34% of SouthState worth $126,398,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SSB. Creative Planning boosted its position in SouthState by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 5,466 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $422,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. boosted its position in SouthState by 37.4% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 591 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in SouthState by 23.7% during the 1st quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 912 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC boosted its position in SouthState by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 43,986 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,134,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amalgamated Bank boosted its position in SouthState by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 9,859 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $753,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at SouthState

In other news, insider Greg A. Lapointe sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.19, for a total value of $316,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 23,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,874,902.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

SouthState Stock Performance

SSB stock opened at $73.57 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.59 billion, a PE ratio of 10.39 and a beta of 0.83. SouthState Co. has a 12-month low of $59.51 and a 12-month high of $91.74. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $72.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.98.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The bank reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by ($0.20). The company had revenue of $555.27 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $433.04 million. SouthState had a net margin of 26.78% and a return on equity of 10.92%. SouthState’s quarterly revenue was up 34.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.62 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that SouthState Co. will post 6.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 11th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 10th. This is a positive change from SouthState’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.83%. SouthState’s payout ratio is currently 29.38%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on SSB shares. StockNews.com started coverage on SouthState in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock. Truist Financial boosted their price target on SouthState from $74.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, SouthState has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $87.20.

SouthState 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.