Franklin Resources Inc. Sells 88,627 Shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Franklin Resources Inc. reduced its holdings in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) by 4.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,850,526 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 88,627 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned 2.43% of SouthState worth $185,719,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Waldron Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of SouthState in the third quarter worth approximately $35,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of SouthState by 53.9% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 548 shares of the bank’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of SouthState during the 2nd quarter valued at $97,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of SouthState during the 2nd quarter worth $133,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in SouthState by 9,620.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,458 shares of the bank’s stock worth $142,000 after acquiring an additional 1,443 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler raised their price target on SouthState from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Citigroup started coverage on SouthState in a report on Thursday, October 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $102.00 price objective on the stock. Hovde Group downgraded SouthState from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Stephens upgraded shares of SouthState from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective (up from $115.00) on shares of SouthState in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $105.11.

SouthState Stock Performance

Shares of SSB stock opened at $108.71 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.92. SouthState Co. has a fifty-two week low of $70.68 and a fifty-two week high of $114.26. The company has a market capitalization of $8.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.78 and a beta of 0.69. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $104.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $93.12.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The bank reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.26. SouthState had a net margin of 21.24% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The business had revenue of $426.41 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $429.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.62 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that SouthState Co. will post 6.94 earnings per share for the current year.

SouthState Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. SouthState’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at SouthState

In other news, insider Daniel E. Bockhorst sold 2,500 shares of SouthState stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $250,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 33,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,332,800. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO William E. V. Matthews sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 36,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,696,400. The trade was a 11.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

SouthState Company 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.