Bryant Riley, Chairman and Co-CEO of B. Riley Financial (RILY), recently bought 33,316 additional shares. The stake increased his holdings by nearly 0.6 percent, and came to a total purchase price of just over $2.2 million.
Riley has been a repeat buyer so far this year, with additional buys back in January when shares traded nearly 40 percent lower. Other company insiders have also been buyers in the past year, and only one insider sale has occurred in the past three years.
The financial conglomerate has had an excellent year, with shares up nearly 190 percent in the past 52 weeks. Overall, company insiders own nearly 43 percent of shares, so they’ve had some great returns as well.
The company’s 40 percent profit margin and trailing PE ratio under 4 makes shares attractive on a valuation basis. And the company just upped its dividend by over 25 percent for a yield now clearing 3 percent right now, on top of the rally in shares.
Action to take: This is a company operating on all cylinders whose growth is likely to continue. Shares have pulled back somewhat from all-time highs in the past month, but have started to trend up again.
Besides buying shares, investors may consider the October $72.50 calls. They last carried a bid/ask spread of $4.75, and are a midway point between the current share price and the prior 52-week high. Traders should look for mid-to-high double-digit gains, should the current uptrend in shares continue.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the stock mentioned here, but may make a trade this company after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any of the companies mentioned in this article.