Insider Purchases & Buybacks: SEI

Recently on CNBC's "Mad Money," Jim Cramer stated, "A company with a big buyback is a company with a big cushion, because you know there will always be a buyer for the stock."

Several significant share buybacks were announced after Tuesday's close. One of the more interesting ideas that came up was SEI Investments (SEIC - commentary - Cramer's Take). (For other insider trades and large buybacks that occurred late last night, please check out today's Top Insider Purchases & Buybacks portfolio on Stockpickr.)

The reason I am highlighting SEI Investment today is its buyback. This year, SEI has purchased 6,455,400 shares totaling $183.9 million. After Tuesday's close, the board announced that it has approved an additional $100 million to the buyback plan. Therefore, this company is buying about $15 million to $30 million worth of its own shares monthly.

SEI Investments is a leading provider of outsourced asset management to leading financial institutions and wealth managers. In essence, asset managers outsource work to SEI to assist with the daily work that goes on behind the scenes when running a fund. Some of the services SEI provides are portfolio accounting, order management, performance measurement, marketing, distribution, administration and compliance services.

There is a growing trend of asset managers outsourcing back-end functions or nonessential functions to take advantage of a larger firm's infrastructure to better compete in the competitive asset-management marketplace. For smaller companies, SEI helps them compete with the larger assets managers. In both cases, they are constantly being chosen by money managers to provide turnkey outsourcing solutions. The company has 20 different offices and clients in more than a dozen countries.

Since June 30, 2007, SEI has grown the assets it administers by $16 billion to $423 billion in mutual fund and pooled assets and has grown the assets it manages by $3 billion to $202 billion in assets (in the second quarter, it grew assets under management by $9 billion).

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At the time of publication, Raznick had no positions in the stocks mentioned, although positions may change at any time.

Jason Raznick is president of Easy Stock Alerts and has been involved with the capital markets for several years. He has worked for Merrill Lynch, Dynamis and Tricap Holdings, a joint venture with Fortress Investment Group. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Raznick appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.