Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Sells 5,752 Shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lessened its stake in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) by 8.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 61,550 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 5,752 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in SouthState were worth $6,123,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of SouthState by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,820,303 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $176,931,000 after acquiring an additional 31,340 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC raised its holdings in SouthState by 2.8% in the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,494,332 shares of the bank’s stock worth $114,197,000 after purchasing an additional 40,879 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of SouthState by 7.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 987,849 shares of the bank’s stock worth $95,999,000 after purchasing an additional 72,181 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of SouthState by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 731,802 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $71,117,000 after buying an additional 34,194 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of SouthState by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 711,853 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $69,178,000 after buying an additional 25,495 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on SSB. UBS Group initiated coverage on SouthState in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $132.00 target price for the company. Hovde Group lowered shares of SouthState from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $120.00 price target (up previously from $115.00) on shares of SouthState in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of SouthState from $111.00 to $103.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of SouthState in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $102.00 target price for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.56.

SouthState Stock Performance

NASDAQ SSB opened at $99.80 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.40 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $104.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $97.51. SouthState Co. has a 1 year low of $70.68 and a 1 year high of $114.26.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The bank reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $426.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $429.47 million. SouthState had a net margin of 21.24% and a return on equity of 9.41%. SouthState’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.62 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that SouthState Co. will post 6.99 EPS for the current year.

SouthState Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.16%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. SouthState’s payout ratio is presently 33.33%.

About SouthState

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.