Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Has $428,000 Stock Holdings in SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) by 24.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,189 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,029 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in SEI Investments were worth $428,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in SEIC. FMR LLC grew its holdings in SEI Investments by 249.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 885,113 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $61,241,000 after purchasing an additional 632,024 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of SEI Investments by 13.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,520,430 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $174,092,000 after purchasing an additional 300,704 shares in the last quarter. Portman Square Capital LLP grew its holdings in shares of SEI Investments by 113.1% in the 4th quarter. Portman Square Capital LLP now owns 17,408 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,436,000 after buying an additional 149,840 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. bought a new stake in shares of SEI Investments in the 4th quarter valued at $9,096,000. Finally, Verition Fund Management LLC raised its stake in SEI Investments by 2,766.3% during the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 111,098 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,687,000 after buying an additional 107,222 shares during the period. 70.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

SEI Investments Stock Performance

NASDAQ SEIC opened at $82.96 on Thursday. SEI Investments has a 52 week low of $62.38 and a 52 week high of $87.25. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $82.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $74.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.04, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.98.

SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The asset manager reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.21 by ($0.02). SEI Investments had a return on equity of 24.29% and a net margin of 26.60%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that SEI Investments will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

SEI Investments Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th were given a $0.49 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.1%. This is an increase from SEI Investments’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.46. SEI Investments’s payout ratio is currently 23.67%.

SEI Investments declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, October 22nd that allows the company to buyback $400.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the asset manager to repurchase up to 4.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on SEIC shares. 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 report on Friday, December 20th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of SEI Investments from $85.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of SEI Investments from $77.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of SEI Investments from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, SEI Investments presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $86.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other SEI Investments news, Chairman Alfred P. West, Jr. sold 52,042 shares of the company’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 sale, the chairman now directly owns 7,232,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $616,461,942.06. This represents a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Carmen Romeo sold 5,000 shares of SEI Investments stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.64, for a total transaction of $398,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,577,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $125,644,205.28. This trade represents a 0.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 186,194 shares of company stock worth $15,769,472. Corporate insiders own 14.30% of the company’s stock.

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.