Franklin Resources Inc. Buys 466,144 Shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) by 26.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,208,224 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 466,144 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 2.90% of SouthState worth $186,485,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in SouthState by 6.7% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 22,961 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,547,000 after acquiring an additional 1,437 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in SouthState by 3.3% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 157,073 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $10,580,000 after acquiring an additional 4,974 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in SouthState during the third quarter valued at approximately $6,378,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in SouthState by 1.2% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,884,632 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $194,309,000 after acquiring an additional 35,291 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versor Investments LP purchased a new stake in shares of SouthState during the third quarter valued at approximately $424,000. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at SouthState

In other SouthState news, insider Daniel E. Bockhorst sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.00, for a total transaction of $243,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 35,828 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,902,068. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, insider Daniel E. Bockhorst sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.00, for a total transaction of $243,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 35,828 shares in the company, valued at $2,902,068. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President Richard Iv Murray sold 4,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.85, for a total value of $401,065.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 58,968 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,826,530.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on SSB. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on SouthState from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on SouthState from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Raymond James raised SouthState from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 price objective (up previously from $96.00) on shares of SouthState in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on SouthState from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $89.83.

SouthState Stock Performance

Shares of SSB stock opened at $78.23 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $80.06 and a 200 day moving average of $80.50. SouthState Co. has a 52 week low of $62.09 and a 52 week high of $87.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.23 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The bank reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $415.49 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $414.32 million. SouthState had a return on equity of 9.24% and a net margin of 20.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.93 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that SouthState Co. will post 6.33 earnings per share for the current year.

SouthState Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 9th. SouthState’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.93%.

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.