SEI Investments Company (Nasdaq: SEIC) hasn't been able to establish an earnings trend, bouncing between beating and falling short of estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Jan. 25. SEI Investments is a provider of investment processing, fund processing, and investment management business outsourcing solutions that help corporations, financial institutions, financial advisors and affluent families create and manage wealth.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back SEI Investments Company, with three of five rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like SEI Investments Company better than competitor Federated Investors overall. That rating hasn't budged in three months as analysts have remained steadfast in their opinion of the stock.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $239.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 3.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.27 per share. Estimates range from $0.25 to $0.30.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 98.2% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 94.3% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on SEI Investments Company, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 48 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, SEI Investments Company's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
SEI Investments Company's profit has risen year over year by an average of 5.2% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

84.2%

84.1%

80.8%

50.1%

Operating Margin

21.9%

22.7%

23.5%

22.4%

Net Margin

21.1%

22.5%

24.8%

27.0%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on SEI Investments Company movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.