Advertisement
U.S. markets open in 8 hours 13 minutes
  • S&P Futures

    5,207.75
    -7.00 (-0.13%)
     
  • Dow Futures

    39,208.00
    -15.00 (-0.04%)
     
  • Nasdaq Futures

    18,176.00
    -55.50 (-0.30%)
     
  • Russell 2000 Futures

    2,047.40
    -2.40 (-0.12%)
     
  • Crude Oil

    82.56
    -0.16 (-0.19%)
     
  • Gold

    2,162.30
    -2.00 (-0.09%)
     
  • Silver

    25.30
    +0.03 (+0.14%)
     
  • EUR/USD

    1.0871
    -0.0006 (-0.05%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.3400
    0.0000 (0.00%)
     
  • Vix

    14.33
    -0.08 (-0.56%)
     
  • GBP/USD

    1.2716
    -0.0012 (-0.10%)
     
  • USD/JPY

    150.1790
    +1.0810 (+0.73%)
     
  • Bitcoin USD

    65,144.66
    -3,281.63 (-4.80%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • FTSE 100

    7,722.55
    -4.87 (-0.06%)
     
  • Nikkei 225

    39,888.50
    +148.10 (+0.37%)
     

Does Vectrus, Inc. (NYSE:VEC) Have A High Beta?

If you’re interested in Vectrus, Inc. (NYSE:VEC), then you might want to consider its beta (a measure of share price volatility) in order to understand how the stock could impact your portfolio. Volatility is considered to be a measure of risk in modern finance theory. Investors may think of volatility as falling into two main categories. The first type is company specific volatility. Investors use diversification across uncorrelated stocks to reduce this kind of price volatility across the portfolio. The second type is the broader market volatility, which you cannot diversify away, since it arises from macroeconomic factors which directly affects all the stocks on the market.

Some stocks mimic the volatility of the market quite closely, while others demonstrate muted, exagerrated or uncorrelated price movements. Some investors use beta as a measure of how much a certain stock is impacted by market risk (volatility). While we should keep in mind that Warren Buffett has cautioned that ‘Volatility is far from synonymous with risk’, beta is still a useful factor to consider. To make good use of it you must first know that the beta of the overall market is one. A stock with a beta greater than one is more sensitive to broader market movements than a stock with a beta of less than one.

View our latest analysis for Vectrus

What we can learn from VEC’s beta value

Given that it has a beta of 1.56, we can surmise that the Vectrus share price has been fairly sensitive to market volatility (over the last 5 years). If the past is any guide, we would expect that Vectrus shares will rise quicker than the markets in times of optimism, but fall faster in times of pessimism. Share price volatility is well worth considering, but most long term investors consider the history of revenue and earnings growth to be more important. Take a look at how Vectrus fares in that regard, below.

NYSE:VEC Income Statement Export January 2nd 19
NYSE:VEC Income Statement Export January 2nd 19

How does VEC’s size impact its beta?

With a market capitalisation of US$243m, Vectrus is a very small company by global standards. It is quite likely to be unknown to most investors. It takes less money to influence the share price of a very small company. This may explain the excess volatility implied by this beta value.

What this means for you:

Since Vectrus tends to moves up when the market is going up, and down when it’s going down, potential investors may wish to reflect on the overall market, when considering the stock. In order to fully understand whether VEC is a good investment for you, we also need to consider important company-specific fundamentals such as Vectrus’s financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following:

  1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for VEC’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for VEC’s outlook.

  2. Past Track Record: Has VEC been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of VEC’s historicals for more clarity.

  3. Other Interesting Stocks: It’s worth checking to see how VEC measures up against other companies on valuation. You could start with this free list of prospective options.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.

Advertisement