How should investors assess risk in the stocks they buy or sell? As you can imagine, the concept of risk is hard to pin down and factor into stock analysis and valuation. Is there a rating – some sort of number, letter or phrase – that will do the trick?
One of the most popular indicators of risk is a statistical measure called beta. Stock analysts use this measure all the time to get a sense of stocks’ risk profiles.
Here we shed some light on what the measure means for investors. While beta does say something about price risk, it has its limits for investors looking for fundamental risk factors.
Beta
Beta is a measure of a stock’s volatility in relation to the market. By definition, the market has a beta of 1.0, and individual stocks are ranked according to how much they deviate from the market. A stock that swings more than the market over time has a beta above 1.0. If a stock moves less than the market, the stock’s beta is less than 1.0. High-beta stocks are supposed to...
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