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- Capping off the last week of 2021, B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY) logged the biggest gain of any financial stock (with market cap over $2B) this week, rising 8.8%.
- About a week ago, SA contributor Double Dividend Stocks put out a bullish report on the Los Angeles-based financial services company highlighting its history of special dividends and its insiders' sizeable ownership of the company's stock.
- B. Riley (RILY) stock jumped 16% in the past month and rose 132% for the year.
- The second biggest gainer this week, First Cash Holdings (NASDAQ:FCFS) continued its rally after appearing in the top five weekly gainers last week. FCFS stock climbed 7.0% this week, turning in a 19% increase for the month. For the year, though, it's only gainged 6.8%. The operator of pawn shops agreed in October to acquire American First Finance for $1.17B in cash and stock.
- That's followed by Kinsdale Capital Group (NASDAQ:KNSL), up 6.0%, which transferred its listing to the NYSE earlier this month;
- Futu Holdings (NASDAQ:FUTU), a typically volatile stock, was on the upswing this week, rising 5.9%; for the month it fell 1.5% and for the year it's down 5.4%.
- Triumph Bancorp (NASDAQ:TBK), rising 5.3%, rounds out the five best financial performers for the week.
- Turning to the flip side, a bitcoin miner and three tech-focused stocks were among the five worst-performing financial stocks for the week, with tech-focused lending and mortgage companies being particularly weak
- Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) sank 14% this week after announcing that it's buying an additional 78K bitcoin miners, at a time when bitcoin (BTC-USD) is sliding from the all-time high it hit in November. While the stock has lost 35% of its value in the past month, it has soared 215% for the year.
- Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL), the stock posting the second biggest drop, fell 9.7% for the week, as its first lockup of pre-IPO shares is set to expire on the first trading day of the year; Raymond James downgraded the BDC to Underperform earlier this week; in the past month, BXSL gained 9.6%;
- Open Lending (NASDAQ:LPRO) dipped 8.5%, backtracking after it gained almost 15% in the previous week, another sign of how volatile tech-focused financial stocks have become. LPRO rose 2.7% for the month, but dropped 36% for the year;
- Rocket Companies (NYSE:RKT), known for its Rocket Mortgage unit, declined 8.3%. Earlier this month it acquired personal finance app Truebill for $1.275B in cash; for the month, RKT lost 8.6% and for the year it's down 28%.
- In fifth place on the decliners' list, Lemonade (NYSE:LMND), which started with renters insurance and expanded into pet and auto insurance, dropped 7.8% for the week, 6.5% for the month, and 66% for the year, giving it the distinction of the worst-performing financial stock for the year.
- (Rival mortgage company UWM Holdings (NYSE:UWMC) ranked sixth and Lending Club (NYSE:LC) was the seventh-biggest decliner this week.)
- By contrast, Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST), which operates an artificial intelligence-based platform, finished the year as the best-performing financial stock for the year, surging 271%.
- In November, the SA Quant rating flagged Open Lending (LPRO) as overpriced with decelerating momentum.