B. Riley bouncing back after tough winter

After enduring a winter of pressure from speculative traders looking to drive down its share price, B. Riley Financial Inc. is in the middle of a rebound, with its shares trading at $28.94 on Thursday afternoon, or more than double its recent low in February of $14.46.

The campaign by short sellers, or traders looking to profit from the decline in the company’s stock price, was particularly intense over the winter months. In November, it was first reported that the head of the Franchise Group, a company B. Riley had invested $216.5 million in over the summer as part of a management buyout, was linked to a hedge fund manager who pleaded guilty of fraud.

The Franchise Group controls franchise businesses such as Pet Supplies Plus, Wag N’ Wash and The Vitamin Shoppe.

B. Riley Financial is a boutique investment bank that has recently been expanding into wealth management and financial advice. The recent high for the stock's share price was $60.72 last summer.

With the ticker RILY, B Riley Financial "was like a meme stock, but in reverse, this winter," said one senior industry executive who spoke confidentially to InvestmentNews. "The firm was attacked by the short sellers instead of retail investors jumping in and pushing the price of the stock up."

On Thursday morning, the company declared a 50 cents per share dividend, and in April B. Riley said that an independent investigation had concluded that the firm and its executives had no involvement or knowledge of any suspected misconduct linked to the Franchise Group. The company in April also filed its financial results for the year ended December, after a delay.

During a conference call Wednesday after the market close with investors to discuss first quarter earnings, the firm's chairman and co-CEO Bryant Riley acknowledged the business was a unique model. "I would say that clearly we are a difficult public company," Riley said. "If you think about it, there's an element of us is -- that is an operating private equity business. And then there's an element of us that is pure investments."

Wealth management is a relatively small part of B. Riley, reporting $51.8 million of the firm's $343 million of total revenues in the first quarter, or 15%. Assets under management totaled $25.8 billion at the end of March.

Riley also acknowledged the work of the financial advisors during the firm's difficult winter. "The wealth managers in that group have been unbelievably supportive through all of this," he said. "Through all of the crazy dynamics that have gone on with us, they've been unbelievable supportive."