6 Steps to Calculate the Beta of a Stock.
- Obtain the stock’s historical share price data.
- Obtain historical values of a market index, e.g., S&P 500.
- Convert the share price values into daily return values using the following formula: return = (closing share price − opening share price)/opening ...
- Convert historical stock market index values similarly.
- Align the share return data with index return such that there is a 1-on-1 correspondence between them. For share price return, there should be a ...
- Using the SLOPE function in a financial calculator to find the slope between both arrays of data and the resultant figure is Beta.
Full Answer
What stocks have the highest beta?
- Microsoft has a beta of around 1.25. This means an investor can reasonably expect that this stock is 25% more volatile than the market. ...
- Walt Disney Company has a beta right around 1.03. This puts its volatility right in line with the broader market. ...
- In contrast, Duke Energy has a beta of around 0.27. ...
What factors determine the beta of a stock?
Beta is determined by the cyclicality of a firm's revenues. This cyclicality is magnified by the firm's operating and financial leverage. (1) Revenues. The cyclicality of a firm's sales is an important factor in determining beta. In general, stock prices will rise when the economy expands and will fall when the economy contracts.
What is a good beta value for a stock?
- Market value: $9.1 billion
- Dividend yield: N/A
- Forward P/E ratio: 13.4
- Analysts' ratings: 6 Strong Buy, 3 Buy, 0 Hold, 1 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
- Analysts' consensus recommendation: 1.60 (Buy)
How to interpret the beta of a stock?
The beta coefficient can be interpreted as follows:
- β =1 exactly as volatile as the market
- β >1 more volatile than the market
- β <1>0 less volatile than the market
- β =0 uncorrelated to the market
- β <0 negatively correlated to the market
How do you find the beta of a stock?
Beta could be calculated by first dividing the security's standard deviation of returns by the benchmark's standard deviation of returns. The resulting value is multiplied by the correlation of the security's returns and the benchmark's returns.
How do you calculate beta step by step?
Beta can be calculated by dividing the asset's standard deviation of returns by the market's standard deviation. The result is then multiplied by the correlation of the security's return and the market's return.
How do you calculate beta of a stock in Excel?
To calculate beta in Excel:Download historical security prices for the asset whose beta you want to measure.Download historical security prices for the comparison benchmark.Calculate the percent change period to period for both the asset and the benchmark. ... Find the variance of the benchmark using =VAR.More items...
What is beta of a stock?
Beta is a way of measuring a stock's volatility compared with the overall market's volatility. The market as a whole has a beta of 1. Stocks with a value greater than 1 are more volatile than the market (meaning they will generally go up more than the market goes up, and go down more than the market goes down).
How do you calculate the beta of a portfolio?
Portfolio Beta formulaAdd up the value (number of shares x share price) of each stock you own and your entire portfolio.Based on these values, determine how much you have of each stock as a percentage of the overall portfolio.Take the percentage figures and multiply them with each stock's beta value.More items...•
How do you find the beta and alpha of a stock?
Alpha = R – Rf – beta (Rm-Rf)R represents the portfolio return.Rf represents the risk-free rate of return.Beta represents the systematic risk of a portfolio.Rm represents the market return, per a benchmark.
What is a good beta number in stocks?
Key Takeaways. Beta is a concept that measures the expected move in a stock relative to movements in the overall market. A beta greater than 1.0 suggests that the stock is more volatile than the broader market, and a beta less than 1.0 indicates a stock with lower volatility.
How do you find the beta of a stock in NSE?
To calculate the beta value of a stock, a spreadsheet program is useful for calculating the covariance of the stock and index returns, then dividing that by the variance of the index. If a stock returned 8% last year and the index returned 5%, a rough estimate of beta is: 8 / 5 = 1.6.
How do you calculate beta of a stock using CAPM?
CAPM Beta Calculation in ExcelStep 1 – Download the Stock Prices & Index Data for the past 3 years. ... Step 2 – Sort the Dates & Adjusted Closing Prices. ... Step 3 – Prepare a single sheet of Stock Prices Data & Index Data.Step 4 – Calculate the Fractional Daily Return.Step 5 – Calculate Beta – Three Methods.
What does a 2.5 beta mean?
Beta indicates how volatile a stock's price is in comparison to the overall stock market. A beta greater than 1 indicates a stock's price swings more wildly (i.e., more volatile) than the overall market. A beta of less than 1 indicates that a stock's price is less volatile than the overall market.
What does a beta of 1.5 mean?
Roughly speaking, a security with a beta of 1.5, will have move, on average, 1.5 times the market return. [More precisely, that stock's excess return (over and above a short-term money market rate) is expected to move 1.5 times the market excess return).]
What does a beta of 0.8 mean?
If the stock is more volatile than the market, its beta will be more than 1, and if it is less volatile than the market, its beta will be less than 1. For example, a stock with a beta of 0.8 would be expected to return 80% as much as the overall market.
What is covariance in portfolio management?
To clarify, Covariance is a measurement of the directional relationship between two numbers. In the Beta Coefficient, the two numbers are the market return and the stock return. You can learn how to calculate covariance here. In portfolio management theory, the Variance of Return is a measure of an individual stock’s risk by itself.
How to calculate beta of a stock?
Here is a straightforward formula for calculating the Beta Coefficient of a Stock: 1 Obtain the stock’s historical share price data. 2 Obtain historical values of a market index, e.g., S&P 500. 3 Convert the share price values into daily return values using the following formula: return = (closing share price − opening share price)/opening share price. 4 Convert historical stock market index values in a similar way. 5 Align the share return data with index return such that there is a 1-on-1 correspondence between them. For share price return, there should be a corresponding index return. 6 Using the SLOPE function in a financial calculator to find the slope between both arrays of data and the resultant figure is Beta.
What is the beta coefficient?
Generally, analysts regard the Beta Coefficient as a measure of systematic or “general market” risk. Analysts often use the mathematical symbol β to represent the Beta in calculations. To explain, systematic is the level of risk or volatility of equity in the entire market or index.
What does beta mean in stocks?
Beta can give you an estimate of the stock’s risk and some idea of market volatility. Ideally, the Beta will tell you the difference between a stock’s risk and the risk of an entire index market.
Why do analysts use the beta coefficient?
Analysts examine the Beta Coefficient, or Beta of stock, because the Beta measures risk and volatility. Specifically, the Beta can give you an estimate of the stock’s risk and some idea of market volatility. Ideally, the Beta will tell you the difference between a stock’s risk and the risk of an entire index market.
Why is beta a limited tool?
Hence, the Beta is a limited tool because it only measures some risks associated with individual stocks or indexes. However, a rough estimate of risk is better than no estimate of risk.
What does a value of 5 mean?
A value of 1 means it moved with the market, a value of 2 means it moved up and down with the market but twice as much, and a value of .5 means it moved up and down half as much as the market did. Strategic Beta for Funds & ETFs.
What does a beta of 1 mean?
Beta of 1 implies that the volatility of the stock is exactly the same as that of the underlying market or the index in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Beta of greater than 1 implies that the stock is more volatile than the underlying market or index. A negative Beta is possible but highly unlikely.
What does it mean when the beta of a stock is negative?
The Stock Beta can have three types of values: Beta < 0: If the Beta is negative, then this implies an inverse relationship between the stock and the underlying market or the benchmark in comparison. Both stock and the market or the benchmark will move in the opposite direction. Beta = 0: If the Beta is equal to zero, ...
What is beta in stock market?
Stock Beta is one of the statistical tools that quantify the volatility in the prices of a security or stock with reference to the market as a whole or any other benchmark used for comparing the performance of the security. It is actually a component of Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
What does it mean when the beta is greater than zero?
Beta > 0: If the Beta is greater than zero, then there is a strong direct relationship between the stock and the underlying market or the benchmark. Both stock and the market or the benchmark will move in the same direction. Some further insight is as follows:
What does it mean when the beta is 0?
Beta = 0: If the Beta is equal to zero, then this implies that there is no relation between the movement of the returns of the stock and the market or the benchmark, and hence both are too dissimilar to have any common pattern in price movements . Beta > 0: If the Beta is greater than zero, then there is a strong direct relationship between ...
What is a statistical tool?
It is one single statistical tool that investors frequently use to assess the risk that the stock may add to their portfolio, allowing them to gauge the risk in both qualitative and quantitative terms and to assess the risk and rewards associated with the stock.
Is a negative beta of gold a good thing?
A negative Beta is possible but highly unlikely. Most investors believe that gold and stock based on gold tend to perform better when the market dives. Whereas a Beta of zero is possible in the case of government bonds acting as risk-free securities providing a low yield to the investors.
What does it mean when the beta is lower than 1?
The risk of an index is fixed at 1. A beta of lower than 1 means that the stock is less risky than the index to which it's being compared. A beta of higher than 1 means the stock is more risky than the index to which it's being compared.
What is beta in stock market?
Learn more... Beta is the volatility or risk of a particular stock relative to the volatility of the entire stock market. Beta is an indicator of how risky a particular stock is, and it is used to evaluate its expected rate of return.
How to interpret beta?
Know how to interpret beta. Beta is the risk, relative to the stock market as a whole, an investor assumes by owning a particular stock. That's why you need to compare the returns of a single stock against the returns of an index. The index is the benchmark against which the stock is judged. The risk of an index is fixed at 1. A beta of lower than 1 means that the stock is less risky than the index to which it's being compared. A beta of higher than 1 means the stock is more risky than the index to which it's being compared.
What is beta analysis?
Beta analyzes a stock's volatility over a set period of time, without regard to whether the market was on an upswing or downswing. As with other stock fundamentals, the past performance it analyzes is not a guarantee of how the stock will perform in the future. Thanks!
What does it mean when the beta is negative?
Usually the rates of return are figured over several months. Either or both of these values may be negative, meaning that investing in the stock or the market (index) as a whole would mean a loss during the period. If only one of the two rates is negative, the beta will be negative.
How to calculate the return of a stock?
Begin calculating returns for the stock market index. 1 Since return is a calculation over time, you won't put anything in your first cell; leave it blank. You need at least two data points to calculate returns, which is why you'll start on the second cell of your index-returns column. 2 What you're doing is subtracting the more recent value from the older value and then dividing the result by the older value. This just gives you the percent of loss or gain for that period. 3 Your equation for the returns column might look something like this: = (B4-B3)/B3
How many people edit wikihow?
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What is the correlation between XYZ and NASDAQ?
Based on data over the past three years, the correlation between the firm XYZ and NASDAQ is 0.82. XYZ has a standard deviation of returns of 22.12%, and NASDAQ has a standard deviation of returns of 22.21%.
How to calculate beta?
Beta can be calculated by dividing the asset’s standard deviation of returns by the market’s standard deviation of returns. The result is then multiplied by the correlation of security’s return and the market’s return.
What is beta in capital asset pricing model?
Beta is used in the formulae of capital asset pricing model (CAPM), which is used to calculate the expected return. Expected Return The Expected Return formula is determined by applying all the Investments portfolio weights with their respective returns and doing the total of results.
What does a beta mean in stocks?
Beta, which has a value of 1, indicates that it exactly moves in accordance with the market value. A higher beta indicates that the stock is riskier, and a lower beta indicates that the stock is less volatile as compared to the market. Mostly Betas generally fall between the values of range 1.0 to 2.0.
What is beta in stock market?
Beta is a measure of the volatility of the stock as compared to the overall stock market. Overall Stock Market Stock Market works on the basic principle of matching supply and demand through an auction process where investors are willing to pay a certain amount for an asset, and they are willing to sell off something they have at a specific price.
What is the benefit of using beta coefficient?
Advantages of using Beta Coefficient. One of the most popular uses of Beta is to estimate the cost of equity (Re) in valuation models. The CAPM estimates an asset’s Beta based on a single factor, which is the systematic risk of the market.
What is systematic risk?
Systematic Risk Systematic risk is that part of the total risk that is caused by factors beyond the control of a specific company or individual. Systematic risk is caused by factors that are external to the organization. All investments or securities are subject to systematic risk and therefore, it is a non-diversifiable risk.
What is beta coefficient?
The Beta coefficient is a measure of sensitivity or correlation of a security. Marketable Securities Marketable securities are unrestricted short-term financial instruments that are issued either for equity securities or for debt securities of a publicly listed company. The issuing company creates these instruments for the express purpose ...
What are the drawbacks of beta?
The largest drawback of using Beta is that it relies solely on past returns and does not account for new information that may impact returns in the future. Furthermore, as more return data is gathered over time, the measure of Beta changes, and subsequently, so does the cost of equity.
What is GDP in macroeconomics?
Large changes in macroeconomic variables, such as interest rates, inflation, GDP. GDP Formula Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the monetary value, in local currency, of all final economic goods and services produced in a country during a. , or foreign exchange, are changes that impact the broader market and that cannot be avoided through ...
Why do low beta stocks dove down?
This is because their market correlation was much lower, and thus the swings orchestrated through the index were not felt as acutely for those low beta stocks.
What is beta in finance?
In finance, the beta of a firm refers to the sensitivity of its share price with respect to an index or benchmark. ...
What does it mean when a stock is beta?
Beta is a measure of how sensitive a firm's stock price is to an index or benchmark. A beta greater than 1 indicates that the firm's stock price is more volatile than the market, and a beta less than 1 indicates that the firm's stock price is less volatile than the market. A beta may produce different results because of ...
What does a beta of less than one mean?
If the opposite is the case, its beta will be a value less than one. A company with a beta of greater than one will tend to amplify market movements (for instance the case for the banking sector), and a business with a beta of less than one will tend to ease market movements.
Is low beta stock volatile?
Low beta stocks are much less volatile; however, another analysis must be done with intra-industry factors in mind. On the other hand, higher beta stocks are selected by investors who are keen and focused on short-term market swings. They wish to turn this volatility into profit, albeit with higher risks.
Who is Charles Potters?
Charles is a nationally recognized capital markets specialist and educator who has spent the last three decades developing in-depth training programs for burgeoning financial professionals. Article Reviewed on May 31, 2021. Learn about our Financial Review Board. Charles Potters.
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Follow Twitter. Nick Lioudis is a writer, multimedia professional, consultant, and content manager for Bread. He has also spent 10+ years as a journalist. Learn about our editorial policies. Nick Lioudis. Reviewed by. Full Bio. Follow.
Computational Notes
beta = covariance of the stock's and the benchmark's returns / variance of the benchmark's returns
Beta Values Vary from Site to Site
Because popular financial sites use different algorithms (time periods, prices series and benchmarks) to compute beta, beta values can vary greatly between sites.
What does a beta of 1.0 mean?
A beta of 1.0 indicates that its volatility is the same as the benchmark. In other words, it moves in tandem with the benchmark. A number higher than 1.0 indicates more volatility than the benchmark, while a lower number indicates more stability. For example, a stock with a beta of 1.2 is 20% more volatile than the market, ...
Why is diversification important?
Diversification can also help reduce the volatility in your portfolios, allowing you to see steady growth without wild swings in the value of your assets.
What is beta in stocks?
Beta is a measure of a stock’s sensitivity to changes in the overall market. You can measure the beta in your portfolios with some basic math. Learn more about how to calculate the volatility, or beta, of your portfolio.
Can you calculate beta using a benchmark?
For this reason, you may wish to calculate beta yourself to get a more precise answer. In some situations, you may prefer to calculate beta using a different benchmark.
Who is Tim Lemke?
Tim Lemke is an investing expert with more than 20 years of experience writing about business and investments. During his career, Tim has written extensively about earnings, mergers and acquisitions, and the stock performance of major corporations. He has been published in The Washington Times, Washington Business Journal, The Daily Record, Wise Bread, and Patch. Tim also spent several years as Manager of Digital Content for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, and has served as a marketing copywriter for the HR Certification Institute. He graduated from the University of Maryland, where he majored in journalism and American studies.
