Short Interest in SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) Grows By 22.4%

SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,640,000 shares, an increase of 22.4% from the November 30th total of 1,340,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 684,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SEIC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of SEI Investments from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of SEI Investments from $77.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of SEI Investments from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on SEI Investments from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.25.

Insider Transactions at SEI Investments

In other news, Chairman Alfred P. West, Jr. sold 52,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.23, for a total transaction of $4,435,539.66. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 7,232,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $616,461,942.06. The trade was a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Michael Peterson sold 25,000 shares of SEI Investments stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.59, for a total transaction of $1,864,750.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 6,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $484,835. The trade was a 79.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 239,258 shares of company stock worth $19,753,402 in the last three months. Insiders own 14.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SEIC. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its holdings in SEI Investments by 9.6% during the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 95,639 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,187,000 after buying an additional 8,387 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its holdings in shares of SEI Investments by 60.7% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 21,419 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,386,000 after acquiring an additional 8,094 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of SEI Investments by 12.1% during the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 76,133 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,925,000 after buying an additional 8,243 shares during the last quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SEI Investments in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,701,000. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of SEI Investments by 56.7% in the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 17,591 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,217,000 after purchasing an additional 6,364 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.59% of the company’s stock.

SEI Investments Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of SEIC stock traded down $0.16 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $82.48. 622,763 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 604,070. The stock has a market cap of $10.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.92, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $80.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.03. SEI Investments has a fifty-two week low of $61.58 and a fifty-two week high of $87.25.

SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.12. SEI Investments had a return on equity of 24.29% and a net margin of 26.60%. The company had revenue of $537.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $534.08 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.87 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that SEI Investments will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SEI Investments announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 22nd that permits the company to repurchase $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the asset manager to reacquire up to 4.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

SEI Investments Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a $0.49 dividend. This is an increase from SEI Investments’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.46. This represents a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. SEI Investments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.67%.

SEI Investments Company Profile

SEI Investments Company is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides wealth management, retirement and investment solutions, asset management, asset administration, investment processing outsourcing solutions, financial services, and investment advisory services to its clients.