B. Riley Financial Stock: Ample Liquidity, Dividend Declared, Short Squeeze (NASDAQ:RILY)

If you had to take away one figure from B. Riley Financial’s (NASDAQ:RILY) fiscal 2024 first-quarter earnings it would have to be its total cash and investments balance of $1.61 billion. The financial services firm is also set to fully redeem its 6.75% Senior Notes Due 5/31/2024 (NASDAQ:RILYO) at the end of May, reducing the number of its public trading baby bonds to six. I own a substantial position in the 5.25% Senior Notes Due 08/31/2028 (NASDAQ:RILYZ) with these currently trading nearly $9 below their intrinsic liquidation value of $25 per note. They’ve been stable since I last covered RILY with their $1.3125 per note annual coupon now constituting an 8% yield on cost.

The broader first-quarter financials were mixed. Revenue of $343 million dipped by 20.6% over the year-ago comp with operating adjusted EBITDA of $66 million down from $88 million. The company held…