SouthState Corporation SSB maintains a disciplined capital management approach, focusing on shareholder returns through dividends and share repurchases while expanding its presence across high-growth markets.
The company has been consistently increasing its dividend payouts since 2020, with the latest hike announced in July 2025, when its board of directors raised the quarterly cash dividend on common stock by 11% to 60 cents per share.
The company has a five-year annualized dividend growth rate of 4.7% and a payout ratio of 25%. SSB currently offers a dividend yield of 2.4%. Rather than pursuing aggressive hikes, the company has prioritized a steady and sustainable dividend policy, which strengthens its long-term financial position and supports investor confidence.
Dividend Yield
Apart from dividend hikes, SouthState has been actively executing share repurchases. In January 2026, the company’s board of directors authorized the repurchase of up to 5.56 million shares. As of March 31, 2026, 4.1 million shares remained available under the authorization.
Additionally, SSB continues to pursue strategic acquisitions to strengthen its franchise and expand its presence in attractive growth markets. The acquisition of Independent Bank in January 2025 enhanced its footprint in Texas and Colorado, while earlier acquisitions have increased the company’s scale and competitive positioning. Its strong capital and liquidity position support both growth initiatives and shareholder returns.
As of March 31, 2026, the company had total debt of $1.73 billion, lower than its cash and cash-equivalent balance of $2.9 billion, providing a solid liquidity cushion. Its times interest earned ratio improved sequentially to 13.8X at the end of the first quarter of 2026, reflecting strong debt-servicing capacity. Additionally, the company maintained healthy capital levels, with a CET1 ratio of 11.3% and tangible common equity of 8.6%. These metrics indicate that SouthState is likely to remain well-positioned to meet its financial obligations even if economic conditions worsen.
SouthState’s consistent dividend growth, active share repurchases and disciplined capital management reflect financial strength and stability. Backed by solid liquidity, healthy capital levels and a steady growth strategy, the company is well-positioned to sustain capital distribution activities and support long-term shareholder value.
How Do SSB’s Peers Manage Capital Distribution?
Similar to SouthState, its peers, BOK Financial Corporation BOKF and Webster Financial Corporation WBS, maintain capital distribution strategies through dividends and share repurchases.
In October 2025, BOK Financial raised its quarterly dividend by 10.6% to 63 cents per share, continuing its track record of annual dividend increases.
BOKF also has a share repurchase program in place. On July 29, 2025, the board is likely to authorize the repurchase of up to 5 million shares, replacing the November 2022 program. While the company did not repurchase any shares during the first quarter of 2026, management continues to view buybacks opportunistically within its capital framework. As of March 31, 2026, 2.9 million shares remained available under the authorization.
Likewise, Webster Financial last raised its quarterly dividend by 21% to 40 cents per share in April 2019 and has maintained that payout level since then.
Beyond dividends, WBS expanded its share repurchase authorization to $700 million in April 2025 from the previous $600 million approved in April 2022. As of March 31, 2026, nearly $664 million worth of shares remained available under the authorization.
SSB’s Price Performance & Zacks Rank
SSB shares have rallied 2.5% in the past six months compared with the industry’s growth of 8%.
Price Performance
At present, SSB carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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