Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Acquires 34,080 Shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its stake in SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB - Free Report) by 20.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 201,229 shares of the bank's stock after buying an additional 34,080 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH owned 0.26% of SouthState worth $20,018,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SSB. BIP Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of SouthState by 605.2% in the 3rd quarter. BIP Wealth LLC now owns 31,422 shares of the bank's stock worth $3,054,000 after acquiring an additional 26,966 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of SouthState by 10.5% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 63,573 shares of the bank's stock valued at $6,178,000 after purchasing an additional 6,062 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SouthState by 3.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 711,853 shares of the bank's stock valued at $69,178,000 after purchasing an additional 25,495 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of SouthState by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 408,894 shares of the bank's stock worth $39,736,000 after purchasing an additional 9,863 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FNY Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SouthState in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,008,000. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on SSB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $120.00 target price (up from $115.00) on shares of SouthState in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of SouthState in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $102.00 price objective on the stock. Hovde Group cut shares of SouthState from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Stephens reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of SouthState in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, UBS Group began coverage on shares of SouthState in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $132.00 price target for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $112.56.

SouthState Stock Performance

SSB stock traded down $0.69 on Thursday, hitting $98.78. The company had a trading volume of 632,816 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,159,076. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. SouthState Co. has a 12-month low of $70.68 and a 12-month high of $114.26. The stock has a market cap of $7.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.24 and a beta of 0.70. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $103.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.01.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The bank reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $426.41 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $429.47 million. SouthState had a return on equity of 9.41% and a net margin of 21.24%. SouthState's revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.62 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that SouthState Co. will post 6.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.