Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Increases Stock Holdings in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its stake in shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) by 2.8% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 53,466 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,458 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL’s holdings in SouthState were worth $4,546,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SSB. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in SouthState by 544.0% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 322 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in SouthState during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $30,000. TFO Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in SouthState by 13,400.0% during the 4th quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 405 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in SouthState by 8,346.7% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,267 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,252 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new stake in SouthState during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $183,000. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

SouthState Stock Performance

SouthState stock traded up $2.89 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $100.18. 751,155 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 672,189. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $78.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $80.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market cap of $7.63 billion, a PE ratio of 15.04 and a beta of 0.68. SouthState Co. has a one year low of $63.36 and a one year high of $100.46.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.25. SouthState had a return on equity of 9.31% and a net margin of 20.84%. The company had revenue of $425.48 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $418.08 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.63 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that SouthState Co. will post 6.33 EPS for the current year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a $0.54 dividend. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This is an increase from SouthState’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. SouthState’s payout ratio is currently 33.93%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on SSB shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on SouthState from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 28th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on SouthState from $84.00 to $81.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 8th. DA Davidson lifted their target price on SouthState from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $88.00 target price on shares of SouthState in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James upgraded SouthState from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, SouthState has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.43.

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, as well as bond accounting, asset/liability consulting related activities, and other clearing and corporate checking account services.