B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY) Stock Sees Unusually High Call Option Buying

B. Riley Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:RILY) was the target of some unusual options trading on Monday. Investors bought 12,307 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 40% compared to the average daily volume of 8,801 call options.

Institutional Trading of B. Riley Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in RILY. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of B. Riley Financial by 2,715.4% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 53,830 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $394,000 after purchasing an additional 51,918 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of B. Riley Financial in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,832,000. Finally, State of Wyoming purchased a new position in B. Riley Financial during the 1st quarter worth approximately $359,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.20% of the company’s stock.

B. Riley Financial Stock Up 3.8%

Shares of B. Riley Financial stock traded up $0.20 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $5.31. The company had a trading volume of 738,082 shares, compared to its average volume of 949,872. The company’s 50-day moving average is $6.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $7.52. B. Riley Financial has a twelve month low of $3.64 and a twelve month high of $11.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.13, a current ratio of 3.95 and a quick ratio of 3.95. The company has a market cap of $213.30 million, a P/E ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 1.24.

B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The asset manager reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter. B. Riley Financial had a net margin of 35.88% and a return on equity of 39,260.09%. The firm had revenue of $239.36 million for the quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on RILY shares. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of B. Riley Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of B. Riley Financial from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Sell”.

About B. Riley Financial

B. Riley Financial, Inc is a diversified financial services company that provides investment banking, institutional brokerage, wealth management, asset management and related advisory services. Through its operating businesses, the company serves corporations, institutional investors, high-net-worth individuals, private equity sponsors and other financial market participants.

Its businesses have included B. Riley Securities, which offers investment banking, equity research, sales and trading, and corporate finance services; B.