Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Stock Position in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its stake in shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB - Free Report) by 8.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 298,539 shares of the bank's stock after selling 26,882 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.39% of SouthState worth $22,814,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in SouthState by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 21,343 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,631,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SouthState by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 34,844 shares of the bank's stock valued at $2,943,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SouthState by 544.0% during the fourth 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. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of SouthState by 120.7% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 609 shares of the bank's stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its holdings in SouthState by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 9,970 shares of the bank's stock worth $842,000 after buying an additional 349 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on SSB shares. Stephens lifted their target price on shares of SouthState from $88.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on SouthState from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on SouthState from $95.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on SouthState from $81.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded shares of SouthState from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $90.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, SouthState has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $102.75.

SouthState Price Performance

NASDAQ:SSB traded down $0.95 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $96.14. The stock had a trading volume of 469,204 shares, compared to its average volume of 480,844. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a PE ratio of 15.68 and a beta of 0.68. SouthState Co. has a 52 week low of $63.36 and a 52 week high of $101.32. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $88.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $82.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.25. SouthState had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 9.31%. The firm had revenue of $425.48 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $418.08 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.63 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that SouthState Co. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a $0.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. This is an increase from SouthState's previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. SouthState's dividend payout ratio is currently 35.24%.

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.