SouthState Bank Corp

SSBdata completeness 88%17 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

SouthState Bank Corp earns about 28% on invested capital, far above its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 43% over 5 years — a real edge showing up in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $50.64 and $98.28 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$1.08B1$1.4B2$1.94B3$2.14B3$3.38B3
Net income$475.5M4$496M5$494.3M6$534.8M6$798.7M6
Operating cash flow$415.7M7$1.73B8$546.8M9$512M9$300.8M9
Capital expenditure$28.4M10$17.7M11$38.9M12$35.8M12$70.3M12
Free cash flow (derived)$387.3M7$1.71B8$507.9M9$476.2M9$230.6M9
Total debt
Cash & equivalents$6.72B13$1.31B14$998.9M14$1.39B14$3.17B14
Diluted shares70.9M75.2M76.5M76.8M101.5M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$892.53
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$78.69
Free cash flow it threw off
$22.72
Debt you’d be carrying

10 shares is a claim on $892.53 of net worth that earned you $78.69 and generated $22.72 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
28% avg · 5y
FY21 FY22 14%FY23 19%FY24 36%FY25 44%

It earned about 28% on invested capital, year after year, against a ~9% cost of capital — the footprint of real pricing power. Competition usually drags returns like this back down; here it hasn't.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+43% shares · 5y

Share count is up 43% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $50.64 and $98.28 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$93.24
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$476.2M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$98.28
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$476.2M
Earnings Power Value
$50.64
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$496M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$125.72
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years0.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $98.28
The three cases
Bear0.0%$98.28
Base0.0%$98.28
Bull5.0%$114.51

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 0.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001558370-24-002302 (InterestAndDividendIncomeOperating)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001558370-25-001274 (InterestAndDividendIncomeOperating)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001104659-26-017884 (InterestAndDividendIncomeOperating)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001558370-24-002302 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001558370-25-001274 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001104659-26-017884 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001558370-24-002302 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001558370-25-001274 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001104659-26-017884 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001558370-24-002302 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001558370-25-001274 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001104659-26-017884 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001558370-25-001274 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001104659-26-017884 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)