B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY) & Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Head to Head Survey

B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY) and Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for B. Riley Financial and Moelis & Company, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
B. Riley Financial	1	0	0	0	1.00
Moelis & Company	0	6	2	0	2.25

Moelis & Company has a consensus target price of $68.17, suggesting a potential upside of 18.48%. Given Moelis & Company’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Moelis & Company is more favorable than B. Riley Financial.

Risk and Volatility

B. Riley Financial has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Moelis & Company has a beta of 1.87, meaning that its share price is 87% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

50.2% of B. Riley Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.5% of Moelis & Company shares are held by institutional investors. 27.8% of B. Riley Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.3% of Moelis & Company shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares B. Riley Financial and Moelis & Company’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
B. Riley Financial	35.88%	39,260.09%	22.99%
Moelis & Company	14.50%	39.59%	17.04%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares B. Riley Financial and Moelis & Company”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
B. Riley Financial	$967.60 million	0.16	$307.42 million	$3.75	1.02
Moelis & Company	$1.52 billion	2.97	$233.04 million	$2.94	19.57

B. Riley Financial has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Moelis & Company. B. Riley Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Moelis & Company, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Moelis & Company beats B. Riley Financial on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About B. Riley Financial

B. Riley Financial, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides financial services to corporate, institutional, and high net worth clients in North America, Australia, the Asia Pacific, and Europe. The company operates through six segments: Capital Markets, Wealth Management, Financial Consulting, Auction and Liquidation, Communications, and Consumer. The Capital Markets segments offers investment banking, equity research, institutional sales and trading, securities lending, fund and asset management, direct lending, venture capital, proprietary trading, and investment services; merger and acquisition, restructuring advisory, and recapitalization services; public and private equity offerings; and debt financing solutions. This segment also trades in equity securities. The Wealth Management segment provides wealth management and tax services. The Financial Consulting segment offers bankruptcy restructuring and turnaround management, forensic accounting and litigation support, valuation and appraisal, and real estate services. The Auction and Liquidation Segment provides auction and liquidation services. The Communications segment offers dial-up, mobile broadband and digital subscriber line services under the NetZero and Juno brands; cloud communication services; VoIP cloud-based technology and communication devices and subscription services through magicJack; and mobile phone voice, text, and data services and devices through Marconi Wireless. The Consumer segment sells laptop and computer accessories. The company was formerly known as Great American Group, Inc. and changed its name to B. Riley Financial, Inc. in November 2014. B. Riley Financial, Inc. was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

About Moelis & Company

Moelis & Co. operates as a holding company. It engages in the provision of financial advisory, capital raising and asset management services to a client base including corporations, governments, sovereign wealth funds and financial sponsors. The firm focuses on clients including large public multinational corporations, middle market private companies, financial sponsors, entrepreneurs and governments. The company was founded by Kenneth David Moelis, Navid Mahmoodzadegan, Jeffrey Raich and Elizabeth Ann Crain in July 2007 and is headquartered in New York, NY.