Stock Traders Buy High Volume of B. Riley Financial Call Options (NASDAQ:RILY)

B. Riley Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:RILY) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Investors purchased 21,615 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 46% compared to the typical daily volume of 14,813 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on RILY shares. Wall Street Zen cut B. Riley Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 21st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of B. Riley Financial in a research note on Monday, December 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, B. Riley Financial has a consensus rating of “Sell”.

B. Riley Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:RILY traded down $0.10 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $7.15. 661,916 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,316,950. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.22 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.27. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $7.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $6.17. B. Riley Financial has a twelve month low of $2.67 and a twelve month high of $10.97.

B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 14th. The asset manager reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $75.70 million during the quarter.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On B. Riley Financial

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its position in B. Riley Financial by 4.2% during the second quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 62,517 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $186,000 after acquiring an additional 2,531 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in shares of B. Riley Financial by 144.9% in the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 14,504 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 8,582 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of B. Riley Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at about $45,000. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in shares of B. Riley Financial by 78.0% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 179,960 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $534,000 after purchasing an additional 78,847 shares during the period. Finally, Engineers Gate Manager LP boosted its position in shares of B. Riley Financial by 70.0% during the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 17,106 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 7,044 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.20% of the company’s stock.

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.