Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY)

B. Riley Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:RILY) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders purchased 24,182 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 83% compared to the average volume of 13,219 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On B. Riley Financial

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Magnus Financial Group LLC bought a new position in B. Riley Financial in the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of B. Riley Financial by 51.3% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 367,984 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,199,000 after buying an additional 124,762 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in B. Riley Financial by 237.2% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,963 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 4,898 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group boosted its stake in B. Riley Financial by 237.4% in the third quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 30,792 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $184,000 after buying an additional 21,665 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP grew its position in B. Riley Financial by 551.3% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 169,977 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,016,000 after acquiring an additional 143,877 shares during the last quarter. 50.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on RILY. Wall Street Zen raised B. Riley Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 20th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of B. Riley Financial in a research report on Monday, December 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating, According to MarketBeat.com, B. Riley Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Sell”.

B. Riley Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ:RILY opened at $7.00 on Friday. B. Riley Financial has a 52-week low of $2.67 and a 52-week high of $7.90. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $4.76 and a 200 day moving average of $5.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $214.20 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.33 and a beta of 1.24.

B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 16th. The asset manager reported $2.70 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of $345.47 million during the quarter.

B. Riley Financial Company Profile

B. Riley Financial, Inc, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, is a diversified financial services company offering a broad range of advisory and investment solutions to individual, corporate and institutional clients. Since its founding in 1997 by Bryant E. Riley, the firm has expanded its capabilities across two primary segments: financial solutions and operations solutions. Its financial solutions segment provides investment banking services, equity research, merger and acquisition advisory, corporate finance, restructuring advisory and private capital solutions.

In addition to traditional investment banking, B.