Southern States Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSBK) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Southern States Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSBK) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 41,900 shares, a decrease of 16.5% from the March 15th total of 50,200 shares. Currently, 0.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 13,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Southern States Bancshares Trading Down 2.2 %

Southern States Bancshares stock opened at $23.39 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. Southern States Bancshares has a 12 month low of $19.61 and a 12 month high of $30.74. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $25.40. The firm has a market cap of $207.70 million, a PE ratio of 6.59 and a beta of 0.14.

Southern States Bancshares (NASDAQ:SSBK) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 22nd. The company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Southern States Bancshares had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 22.64%. The firm had revenue of $23.52 million for the quarter.

Southern States Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 1st. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Southern States Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.14%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SSBK. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Southern States Bancshares by 473.8% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 357,363 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,540,000 after buying an additional 295,088 shares in the last quarter. Banc Funds Co. LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern States Bancshares by 29.5% during the 4th quarter. Banc Funds Co. LLC now owns 732,343 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,443,000 after buying an additional 166,700 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Southern States Bancshares by 353.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 202,679 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,676,000 after buying an additional 157,987 shares in the last quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp purchased a new position in shares of Southern States Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,099,000. Finally, Fourthstone LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern States Bancshares by 35.2% during the 1st quarter. Fourthstone LLC now owns 489,395 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,290,000 after buying an additional 127,295 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Southern States Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Friday, March 15th.

About Southern States Bancshares

Southern States Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Southern States Bank that provides community banking services to businesses and individuals. The company provides various deposit products, such as savings, money market, and noninterest-bearing demand accounts; certificates of deposit; and time deposits.