Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Acquires Shares of 31,026 SouthState Bank Corporation $SSB

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in SouthState Bank Corporation (NYSE:SSB) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 31,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,099,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in SouthState Bank in the 2nd quarter valued at $981,557,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of SouthState Bank during the fourth quarter valued at $125,940,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of SouthState Bank during the second quarter valued at $130,419,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of SouthState Bank by 269.4% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,219,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $120,530,000 after purchasing an additional 889,042 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new stake in shares of SouthState Bank in the 2nd quarter valued at $85,467,000. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.93, for a total transaction of $435,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 40,568 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,419,072.24. This represents a 8.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Brooks sold 24,650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $2,711,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $869,000. This represents a 75.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 34,831 shares of company stock valued at $3,814,274. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SSB. Wall Street Zen cut shares of SouthState Bank from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 25th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of SouthState Bank from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $125.00 price objective on shares of SouthState Bank in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. UBS Group cut shares of SouthState Bank from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $108.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised SouthState Bank from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, SouthState Bank currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $119.64.

SouthState Bank Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NYSE SSB opened at $108.02 on Friday. SouthState Bank Corporation has a 12-month low of $84.47 and a 12-month high of $112.20. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $104.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company has a market cap of $10.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.36 and a beta of 0.72.

SouthState Bank (NYSE:SSB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $2.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.31 by $0.04. SouthState Bank had a net margin of 25.09% and a return on equity of 10.67%. The company had revenue of $672.67 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $676.83 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.30 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that SouthState Bank Corporation will post 9.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Bank Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 7th were paid a $0.66 dividend. This is an increase from SouthState Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 7th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. SouthState Bank’s payout ratio is 27.76%.

SouthState Bank Company Profile

SouthState Bank (NYSE: SSB) is a bank holding company headquartered in Winter Haven, Florida, that provides a range of commercial and retail banking services. Through its subsidiary, SouthState Bank, the company serves businesses, institutions and individuals with deposit, lending and treasury management solutions. Its core business lines include commercial and industrial loans, commercial real estate lending, consumer mortgages and home equity loans.

In addition to traditional lending and deposit products, SouthState Bank offers specialized services such as treasury and cash management, merchant services, payment solutions and online banking.