Key Takeaways
- 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.
How to easily calculate the beta of a stock?
Top 3 Formula to Calculate Beta
- Covariance/Variance Method. To calculate the covariance Calculate The Covariance Covariance is a statistical measure used to find the relationship between two assets and is calculated as the standard deviation ...
- By Slope Method in Excel. We can also calculate Beta by using the slope function in excel. ...
- Correlation Method. ...
How do you calculate beta of stock?
Stock Beta formula. Stock’s Beta is calculated as the division of covariance of the stock’s returns and the benchmark’s returns by the variance of the benchmark’s returns over a predefined period. Below is the formula to calculate stock Beta. Stock Beta Formula = COV(Rs,RM) / VAR(Rm)
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 stock has the highest beta?
High beta stocks have historically outperformed the market, which is why they hold great significance for investors. While beta values have been historically used to calculate stocks' volatility ...
What is a good stock beta value?
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.
Is a beta of 1 GOOD?
A beta of 1 indicates that the security's price tends to move with the market. A beta greater than 1 indicates that the security's price tends to be more volatile than the market. A beta of less than 1 means it tends to be less volatile than the market.
What is a high beta for a stock?
High beta stocks are those that are positively correlated with returns of the S&P 500, but at an amplified magnitude. Because of this amplification, these stocks tend to outperform in bull markets, but can greatly underperform in bear markets.
Is a beta of 0.9 good?
A beta that is greater than 1.0 means that the fund is more volatile than the benchmark index. A beta of less than 1.0 means that the fund is less volatile than the index. In theory, if the market goes up 10%, a fund with a beta of 1.0 should go up 10%; if the market drops 10%, the fund should drop by an equal amount.
Is a beta of 1.5 high?
A high beta (greater than 1.0) indicates moderate or high price volatility. A beta of 1.5 forecasts a 1.5% change in the return on an asset for every 1% change in the return on the market.
What does a beta of 0.6 mean?
Teva Pharmaceutical Industry's 2.49 beta, for example, indicates that the stock is expected to be more than twice as volatile than the market, while Intel's beta of 0.6 means the stock will typically move at a rate that's only about half that the broader market (data from Yahoo Finance, June 13, 2019).
What does a beta of 0.70 mean?
Any beta less than 1 denotes lower volatility and higher than 1 denotes more volatility compared to the benchmark index. For example, if your mutual fund portfolio XYZ has a beta of 0.70, it denotes lower volatility. This means that for every rise or fall of 1 in the market, the value of XYZ may rise or fall by 0.70.
What is considered a low beta?
A beta value that is less than 1.0 means that the security is theoretically less volatile than the market. Including this stock in a portfolio makes it less risky than the same portfolio without the stock. For example, utility stocks often have low betas because they tend to move more slowly than market averages.
What does a beta of 1.2 indicate?
What does a beta of 1.2 indicate? A stock has 20 percent more market risk than the market portfolio.
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 1.1 mean?
Each tenth of a point represents the percentage of volatility. For example, if a stock beta value is 1.1, then it is considered to have a 10 percent greater volatility than the market.
What does a portfolio beta of 1 mean?
Since the broad market has a beta coefficient of 1, a portfolio beta of less than 1 means that the portfolio has lower systematic risk than the market and vice versa. Portfolio beta is an important input in calculation of Treynor's measure of a portfolio.
What does it mean when a stock has a beta of over 100?
If you see a beta of over 100 on a research site it is usually a statistical error or the stock has experienced a wild and probably fatal price swing. For the most part, stocks of established companies rarely have a beta higher than 4.
Why do stocks have beta?
The beta is the number that tells the investor how that stock acts compared to all other stocks, or at least in comparison to the stocks that comprise a relevant index.
Why should gold stocks have negative beta?
Some investors argue that gold and gold stocks should have negative betas because they tend to do better when the stock market declines.
What does a beta of utility mean?
Many utility sector stocks have a beta of less than 1. Essentially, beta expresses the trade-off between minimizing risk and maximizing return. Say a company has a beta of 2. This means it is two times as volatile as the overall market. We expect the market overall to go up by 10%.
What is the beta of cash?
Beta of 0: Basically, cash has a beta of 0. In other words, regardless of which way the market moves, the value of cash remains unchanged (given no inflation). Beta between 0 and 1 : Companies that are less volatile than the market have a beta of less than 1 but more than 0. Many utility companies fall in this range.
What does beta mean in investing?
In investing, beta does not refer to fraternities, product testing, or old videocassettes. Beta is a measurement of market risk or volatility. That is, it indicates how much the price of a stock tends to fluctuate up and down compared to other stocks.
What does a beta of 1 mean?
A beta of 1 indicates that the security's price tends to move with the market. A beta greater than 1 indicates that the security's price tends to be more volatile than the market. A beta of less than 1 means it tends to be less volatile than the market.
What is asset beta?
Unlevered Beta / Asset Beta Unlevered Beta (Asset Beta) is the volatility of returns for a business, without considering its financial leverage. It only takes into account its assets. , on the other hand, only shows the risk of an unlevered company relative to the market.
Why is equity beta called equity beta?
It is also commonly referred to as “equity beta” because it is the volatility of an equity based on its capital structure. Capital Structure Capital structure refers to the amount of debt and/or equity employed by a firm to fund its operations and finance its assets. A firm's capital structure.
What is leveraged beta?
Levered beta, also known as equity beta or stock beta, is the volatility of returns for a stock, taking into account the impact of the company’s leverage from its capital structure. It compares the volatility (risk) of a levered company to the risk of the market. Levered beta includes both business risk. Systemic Risk Systemic risk can be defined ...
How to calculate the weekly return of a stock?
Follow these steps to calculate β in Excel: 1 Obtain the weekly prices of the stock 2 Obtain the weekly prices of the market index (i.e. S&P 500 Index) 3 Calculate the weekly returns of the stock 4 Calculate the weekly returns of the market index 5 Use the Slope function and select the weekly returns of the market and the stock, each as their own series 6 Congrats! The output from the Slope function is the β
Is a company with a 0f 0.79 more volatile than the market?
Also, a company with a β of 1.30 is theoretically 30% more volatile than the market. Similarly, a company with a β 0f 0.79 is theoretically 21% less volatile than the market.
What is the beta of equity oriented assets?
Typically speaking, equity-oriented assets have betas close to +1.0, core fixed income has beta close to 0.0, alternative investments can have lower but still positive betas and outright portfolio hedges, such as S&P 500 puts, have negative betas.
Why is it important to know your portfolio's beta?
The reason that knowing your portfolio’s approximate beta is so useful is that it gives you an estimate of the expected volatility of your portfolio during weaker market environments , such as the one we are currently experiencing. This is an important step in managing emotions during market selloffs. If an investor’s portfolio has ...
What is portfolio beta?
Portfolio Beta: What is Your Number and Why Should You Care? According to Investopedia, beta is defined as “a measure of the volatility, or systematic risk, of a security or a portfolio in comparison to the entire market or a benchmark.”. This definition, as usual, is a mouthful for most investors who are simply trying to understand certain aspects ...
What does negative beta mean?
A negative beta is associated with the expectation that a portfolio will move in the opposite direction of the market. A beta close to zero indicates the portfolio is not influenced by the market’s direction. The magnitude of the portfolio’s expected move is measured relative to the market’s beta, which is set at +1.0.
What is directional beta?
The directional aspect of beta is a function of whether the portfolio’s beta is positive or negative. A positive beta is associated with a tendency of the portfolio to move in the same direction as the market. A negative beta is associated with the expectation that a portfolio will move in the opposite direction of the market.
What does it mean when a stock has a beta of 1?
If the stock has a beta less than 1, you can conclude that it’s less volatile than the overall market. This means that adding it to your portfolio may mitigate risk and may help in diversifying your investments. Betas can also dip below 1 into negative territory. This indicates that the stock may respond in the opposite direction ...
What is beta in stock?
Beta can be a useful metric to determine how a stock’s price may move in relation to the overall market by examining its past performance. It can also be a useful indicator of risk, especially for investors who make trades frequently. However, beta has its limitations.
Why is beta high?
A stock with a high beta indicates it’s more volatile than the overall market and can react with dramatic share-price changes amid market swings. So if you don’t have the stomach for vast price changes, you may want to avoid investing in high-beta stocks.
What does beta mean in stock market?
Beta is represented as a number. Based on beta analysis, the overall stock markethas a beta of 1. And the beta of individual stocks determines how far they deviate from the broader market. A stock with a beta equal to 1 assumes its price moves hand-in-hand with the market.
What is beta in investing?
Nonetheless, beta can be one of many useful tools to have when evaluating your investments. So it’s important to at least calculate the beta of a stock you may be interested in purchasing. Before You Calculate Beta. Remember, beta measures how volatile a stock’s price may be in relation to a market benchmark. ...
What does it mean to have a high beta?
In essence, it would have a high beta and mean more risk.
Is beta a factor?
But beta is just one factor to consider when examining investments. This article will help you understand what it means and how you can use it to build a better portfolio that matches your risk tolerance. A financial advisorcan also help you take advantage of beta to make better investment decisions.
What is beta in stock?
Beta is a metric that compares a stock's movements relative to the overall market, or a certain stock index. A high-beta stock tends to be more volatile than average, while a low-beta stock tends to be less volatile.
What does it mean when a stock has a beta of 2.0?
A stock with a beta of more than one is more volatile than the overall index. For example, a beta of 2.0 implies that the stock will move twice as much as the market. A stock with a beta of exactly one is theoretically exactly as volatile as the overall market.
What does a beta of 0.5 mean?
For example, a beta of 0.5 implies that a stock's movements will theoretically be about 50% of the index's movements. A stock with a beta of more than one is more volatile than the overall index.
Is beta riskier than average?
While it's true that high-beta stocks are typically riskier than the average stock, beta isn't necessarily indicative of risk, as many people believe.
How to calculate beta?
Here’s an example of the data you’ll need to calculate Beta: 1 Risk-free rate (typically Treasuries at least two years out) 2 Your asset’s rate of return over some period (typically one year to five years) 3 Your benchmark’s rate of return over the same period as the asset
How much of the market returns are high beta names?
Indeed, evidence suggests that during good years for the market, high Beta names capture 138% of the market’s total returns. In other words, if the market returned 10% in a year, high Beta names would, on average, produce 13.8% returns. However, during down years, high Beta names capture 243% of the market’s returns.
What is the volatility of a security or portfolio against a benchmark called?
The volatility of a security or portfolio against a benchmark – is called Beta . In short, Beta is measured via a formula that calculates the price risk of a security or portfolio against a benchmark, which is typically the broader market as measured by the S&P 500 Index. When stock markets are rising, high-beta stocks could outperform.
What does a beta of 2.0 mean?
A beta of 2.0 means the stock moves twice as much as the S&P 500. A beta of 0.0 means the stocks moves don’t correlate with the S&P 500. A beta of -1.0 means the stock moves precisely opposite the S&P 500. The higher the Beta value, the more volatility the stock or portfolio should exhibit against the benchmark.
Do high beta names outperform benchmarks?
In other words, while high Beta names may outperform while the market is strong, as signs of weakness begin to show, high Beta names are the first to be sold and generally, much more strongly than the benchmark.
Does beta work in bull markets?
Importantly, Beta simply measures the size of the moves a security makes. Intuitively, it would make sense that high Beta stocks would outperform during bull markets.
Do high beta stocks outperform?
High Beta stocks are not a sure bet during bull markets to outperform, so investors should be judicious when adding high Beta stocks to a portfolio, as the weight of the evidence suggests they are more likely to underperform during periods of market weakness.
What is high beta stock?
High Beta Stocks. Beta is the result of a calculation that measures the relative volatility of a stock in correlation to a particular standard . For U.S. stocks that standard is usually, but not always, the S&P 500. Beta is a form of regression analysis and it can be useful for investors regardless of their risk tolerance.
Why is beta important in stock?
But even then, a stock’s beta can provide a forecast of how volatile it will be in the future—and in turn, build a capital asset pricing model to determine potential reward. Because of its utility as an assessment of volatility, beta is a metric used in both fundamental analysis and technical analysis.
What does a negative beta mean?
Beta of less than 0 (i.e. a negative beta): This means a stock is inversely correlated to the market. The tendency of the stock is to move in the opposite direction as the market. The higher the negative number, the more volatile the stock. As you can see, beta is all about its relationship to the number 1.
What is a personally calculated beta?
A personally calculated beta, on the other hand, is one that investors will calculate for themselves. To calculate beta, investors will have to know the covariance between the return of the stock being analyzed and the return of the benchmark for that stock as well as the variance of the market returns.
What is smart beta?
A smart beta strategy can be used to minimize the risk impact of high beta stocks. This type of strategy might combine something passive and more stable, like a dividend investing strategy, with active trading in order to minimize losses from the most volatile stocks in the fund.
What is beta in fundamental analysis?
Beta is considered one of the few data points that can be beneficial for practitioners of fundamental analysis and technical analysis . Investors who tend to analyze stocks using fundamental analysis will use beta along with the price-to-earnings ratio, shareholders equity, debt-to-equity ratio, and other factors.
What is beta analysis?
Beta is a form of regression analysis and it can be useful for investors regardless of their risk tolerance. Beta is considered one of the few data points that can be beneficial for practitioners of fundamental analysis and technical analysis. This page lists stocks that have unusually high beta calculations.
What does high beta mean in stocks?
When researching stocks for investment, take a glance at the "beta" number. This value measures the volatility of a stock compared with the volatility of the market as a whole. A high beta means the stock price is more sensitive to news and information, and will move faster than a stock with low beta. In general, high beta means high risk, but also ...
Which stocks have lower beta?
Bank and insurance stocks, utilities and large conglomerates all tend to have lower betas. There are, however, many exceptions to this general rule. A report published by ABG Analytics found that in January 2013, banking giant Citigroup stock carried a beta of 2, meaning the stock was exactly twice as volatile and risky as the market.
What does negative beta mean in investing?
A negative beta coefficient does not necessarily mean absence of risk. Instead, negative beta means your investment offers a hedge against serious market downturns. If the market continues rising, however, a negative-beta investment is losing money through opportunity risk – the loss of the chance to make higher returns – and inflation risk, in which a low rate of return does not keep pace with inflation. Because the stock market has historically produced a positive return in most years, the mere act of investing in negative-or low-beta stocks increases these risks over time.
What does zero beta mean?
Understanding Zero Beta. An investment with zero beta means no volatility and no risk. This would leave out stocks. Instead, money market funds with a constant share value of $1, certificates of deposit backed by federal deposit insurance, and cash in savings and checking accounts all should have zero beta. The cash in your wallet also has zero ...
Why is gold considered a negative beta?
Because gold is seen as a more secure store of value than currency, a market crash prompts investors to sell their stocks and either move into cash (for zero beta) or buy gold (for negative beta). Negative beta is an unusual concept, as it pertains to the stock market.
Does a dollar bill have zero beta?
The cash in your wallet also has zero beta: The value of a dollar bill will always be $1, and carries no risk of a fluctuation in value. Of course, inflation erodes the purchasing power of money, meaning your zero-beta investment actually loses if it pays interest at less than the rate of inflation.
Is a beta of 1 a risk?
A stock with a beta value of 1 is just as risky as the stock market as a whole, and its price change generally tracks that of the index. Investors with low tolerance for volatility would seek a stock with a beta value of 1 or lower. In general, bigger companies with more predictable earnings and dividends will carry a lower beta value.
Calculating Beta
- Beta is calculated using regression analysis. Numerically, it represents the tendency for a security's returns to respond to swings in the market. The formula for calculating beta is the covariance of the return of an asset with the return of the benchmarkdivided by the variance of t…
The Advantages of Beta
- To followers of CAPM, beta is useful. A stock's price variability is important to consider when assessing risk. If you think about risk as the possibility of a stock losing its value, beta has appeal as a proxy for risk. Intuitively, it makes plenty of sense. Think of an early-stage technology stock with a price that bounces up and down more than the market. It's hard not to think that stock wil…
The Disadvantages of Beta
- If you are investing based on a stock's fundamentals, beta has plenty of shortcomings. For starters, beta doesn't incorporate new information. Consider a utility company: let's call it Company X. Company X has been considered a defensive stockwith a low beta. When it entered the merchant energy business and assumed more debt, X's historic beta no longer captured the …
Assessing Risk
- The well-worn definition of risk is the possibility of suffering a loss. Of course, when investors consider risk, they are thinking about the chance that the stock they buy will decrease in value. The trouble is that beta, as a proxy for risk, doesn't distinguish between upside and downsideprice movements. For most investors, downside movements are a risk, while upside ones mean oppor…
The Bottom Line
- Ultimately, it's important for investors to make the distinction between short-term risk—where beta and price volatility are useful—and longer-term, fundamental risk, where big-picture risk factors are more telling. High betas may mean price volatility over the near term, but they don't always rule out long-term opportunities.
Examples of Beta
Calculation
- Below is an Excel β calculator that you can download and use to calculate β on your own. β can easily be calculated in Excel using the Slope function. Follow these steps to calculate β in Excel: 1. Obtain the weekly prices of the stock 2. Obtain the weekly prices of the market index (i.e., S&P 500 Index) 3. Calculate the weekly returns of the stock 4. Calculate the weekly returns of the market i…
What Are Equity Beta and Asset Beta?
- Levered beta, also known as equity beta or stock beta, is the volatility of returns for a stock, taking into account the impact of the company’s leverage from its capital structure. It compares the volatility (risk) of a levered company to the risk of the market. Levered beta includes both business risk and the risk that comes from taking on debt. It is also commonly referred to as “eq…
Levered Beta vs Unlevered Beta
- Levered beta (equity beta) is a measurement that compares the volatility of returns of a company’s stock against those of the broader market. In other words, it is a measure of risk, and it includes the impact of a company’s capital structure and leverage. Equity beta allows investors to assess how sensitive a security might be to macro-market risks. For example, a company with a …
Calculation of Levered Beta
- There are two ways to estimate the levered beta of a stock. The first, and simplest, way is to use the company’s historical β or just select the company’s beta from Bloomberg. The second, and more popular, way is to make a new estimate for β using public company comparables. To use the comparables approach, the β of comparable companies is taken from Bloomberg and the un…
Interpreting Beta
- A security’s β should only be used when its high R-squared value is higher than the benchmark. The R-squared value measures the percentage of variation in the share price of a security that can be explained by movements in the benchmark index. For example, a gold ETF will show a low β and R-squared in relation to a benchmark equity index, as gold is negatively correlated with equit…
Related Readings
- Thank you for reading CFI’s guide to beta (β) of an investment security. To continue learning and advancing your career these additional resources will be helpful: 1. Types of Valuation Multiples 2. Analysis of Financial Statements 3. Leverage Ratios 4. Valuation Methods