🧾 What This Document Is

This is SouthState Bank Corporation's first-quarter 2026 earnings release, filed as an 8-K with the SEC. Think of it as the company's quarterly report card, where they tell investors how they did, what happened with their money, and what their plans are. It also announces a new dividend payment.

🏢 What The Company Does

👉 In simple terms, SouthState is a large regional bank. It's based in Florida and operates across the southeastern and central U.S. (like Texas, the Carolinas, and Georgia). It makes money the classic banking way: taking in deposits from customers and lending that money out as mortgages, business loans, and more. It also has divisions for wealth management and serving other banks (correspondent banking).

💰 Financial Highlights: A Strong Quarter

The bank had a profitable start to 2026. Here’s what that looks like in key numbers:

Profitability:

• Net Income: $225.8 million for the quarter.
• Earnings Per Share (EPS): $2.28. This is up a huge 162% from the same quarter last year (though last year's number was weighed down by some big, one-time costs).
• Key Profit Metrics: They generated a 1.37% Return on Average Assets (ROAA) and a 17.6% Return on Average Tangible Common Equity. These are fancy ways of saying they're using their assets and shareholder money efficiently to make a profit.

The Core Banking Engine (Net Interest Income):

• This is the profit from their main business—lending. It was $562 million, up 3% from last year.
• The Spread: Their "Net Interest Margin" (the difference between what they earn on loans and pay on deposits) was 3.78%. It’s a healthy margin, though it ticked down slightly from last quarter.

Non-Interest Income:

• They earned $100 million from fees and services like mortgage banking, wealth management, and capital markets activities.

🚀 Key Moves & Management's Take

CEO John Corbett highlighted several points of momentum:

• Growth Engine is On: Loans grew at a 7% annual rate, and deposits grew at a 5% annual rate. He noted a "record pipeline" of potential new business.
• Attracting Talent: The bank is actively hiring commercial bankers to drive future growth.
• Returning Cash to Owners: Over the past year, they raised their dividend by 11% and bought back almost 4% of their own shares. This shows confidence in their own stock and a focus on shareholder value.
• Strong Foundation: Asset quality remains "strong," with very low levels of bad loans (annualized net charge-offs of just 0.09%).

📦 Financial Position: The Balance Sheet

The bank's overall financial health looks solid.

• Total Assets: $67.98 billion.
• Total Loans: $49.50 billion. The loan portfolio is heavily weighted towards commercial real estate (both investor and owner-occupied) and commercial & industrial loans.
• Total Deposits: $55.88 billion. This is the bank's main source of funding. The cost of these deposits was 1.76%, which was down slightly—good news for the bank's margins.
• Capital Strength: Their capital ratios (like Tier 1 Leverage at 9.4%) are well above regulatory requirements, meaning they have a strong cushion to absorb potential losses.

⚖️ Asset Quality: Keeping Loans Clean

This is a critical section for any bank. The numbers show a clean loan book.

• Nonperforming Assets: Loans that are in trouble (nonaccrual or 90+ days past due) totaled $328.6 million, which is just 0.48% of total assets. This is a low level.
• Safety Net: The bank has set aside an Allowance for Credit Losses (ACL) equal to 1.18% of its total loans. This is its rainy-day fund to cover bad loans, and it's more than 1.9x the size of its nonperforming loans—a strong coverage ratio.

🔮 What's Next: The Dividend & The Call

• Dividend Confirmed: The Board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.60 per share, to be paid on May 15, 2026.
• Hear from Management: The bank will host a conference call on April 24, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. ET to discuss these results. Investors can dial in at (888) 350-3899 (toll-free) or listen via the webcast on their website.

🧠 The Analogy

Think of SouthState as a well-run farm. This quarter, they successfully planted more crops (grew loans by 7%), stored plenty of water (grew deposits by 5%), and had a very low amount of spoiled harvest (low loan losses). The farm is healthy, so the owners (shareholders) are getting a bigger share of the profits (dividend) and the farm manager is buying back some of the farm's own shares because he thinks they're a good deal.

🧩 Final Takeaway

SouthState delivered a balanced and strong first quarter, showing solid growth in both loans and deposits while keeping expenses in check and maintaining excellent asset quality. Management's confidence is evidenced by increasing dividends and repurchasing shares, signaling they believe the bank is well-positioned for continued performance.