Is South State Corporation (SSB) a Good Buy?

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As one would reasonably expect, some big names have jumped into South State Corporation (NASDAQ:SSB) headfirst. AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, assembled the most valuable position in South State Corporation (NASDAQ:SSB). AQR Capital Management had $0.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D E Shaw also made a $0.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new SSB positions are Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to South State Corporation (NASDAQ:SSB). We will take a look at Science Applications International Corp (NYSE:SAIC), Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG), Black Hills Corp (NYSE:BKH), and Alliance Holdings GP, L.P. (NASDAQ:AHGP). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble SSB’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
SAIC 20 125846 2
ENTG 19 396921 5
BKH 18 129397 3
AHGP 7 20968 1

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $168 million. That figure was $78 million in SSB’s case. Science Applications International Corp (NYSE:SAIC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Alliance Holdings GP, L.P. (NASDAQ:AHGP) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. South State Corporation (NASDAQ:SSB) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard SAIC might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

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