Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) Stock Price

SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) had its target price lifted by Morgan Stanley from $75.00 to $80.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “underweight” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 1.91% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on SEI Investments from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on SEI Investments from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on SEI Investments from $77.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $84.50.

SEI Investments Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of SEIC traded down $0.36 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $81.56. 123,153 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 339,018. The company’s 50 day moving average is $81.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $72.30. The company has a market capitalization of $10.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.70, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.98. SEI Investments has a 52 week low of $61.58 and a 52 week high of $87.25.

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

SEI Investments announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, October 22nd that permits the company to buyback $400.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the asset manager to repurchase up to 4.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at SEI Investments

In other SEI Investments news, Chairman Alfred P. West, Jr. sold 52,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.23, for a total value 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 $616,461,942.06. This trade represents a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Michael Peterson sold 25,000 shares of SEI Investments stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.59, for a total transaction of $1,864,750.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,500 shares in the company, valued at $484,835. This trade represents a 79.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 239,258 shares of company stock valued at $19,753,402 over the last quarter. 14.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SEIC. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of SEI Investments by 44.9% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,869 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $402,000 after acquiring an additional 1,509 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of SEI Investments by 13.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 507,916 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $35,143,000 after purchasing an additional 60,824 shares during the period. DGS Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of SEI Investments by 14.4% in the third quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 11,518 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $797,000 after purchasing an additional 1,448 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in SEI Investments by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 320,482 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $22,799,000 after buying an additional 48,429 shares during the period. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in SEI Investments in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $374,000. 70.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About SEI Investments

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.