One Thing To Consider Before Buying Sabre Resources Limited (ASX:SBR)
If you are looking to invest in Sabre Resources Limited’s (ASX:SBR), or currently own the stock, then you need to understand its beta in order to understand how it can affect the risk of your portfolio. The beta measures SBR’s exposure to the wider market risk, which reflects changes in economic and political factors. Not every stock is exposed to the same level of market risk, and the broad market index represents a beta value of one. A stock with a beta greater than one is expected to exhibit higher volatility resulting from market-wide shocks compared to one with a beta below one.
See our latest analysis for Sabre Resources
What is SBR’s market risk?
With a five-year beta of 0.71, Sabre Resources appears to be a less volatile company compared to the rest of the market. This means the stock is more defensive against the ups and downs of a stock market, moving by less than the entire market index in times of change. SBR’s beta implies it may be a stock that investors with high-beta portfolios might find relevant if they wanted to reduce their exposure to market risk, especially during times of downturns.
How does SBR’s size and industry impact its risk?
SBR, with its market capitalisation of AUD A$5.28M, is a small-cap stock, which generally have higher beta than similar companies of larger size. In addition to size, SBR also operates in the metals and mining industry, which has commonly demonstrated strong reactions to market-wide shocks. Therefore, investors may expect high beta associated with small companies, as well as those operating in the metals and mining industry, relative to those more well-established firms in a more defensive industry. It seems as though there is an inconsistency in risks portrayed by SBR’s size and industry relative to its actual beta value. A potential driver of this variance can be a fundamental factor, which we will take a look at next.
Is SBR’s cost structure indicative of a high beta?
During times of economic downturn, low demand may cause companies to readjust production of their goods and services. It is more difficult for companies to lower their cost, if the majority of these costs are generated by fixed assets. Therefore, this is a type of risk which is associated with higher beta. I examine SBR’s ratio of fixed assets to total assets to see whether the company is highly exposed to the risk of this type of constraint. Given a fixed to total assets ratio of over 30%, SBR seems to be a company which invests a big chunk of its capital on assets that cannot be scaled down on short-notice. Thus, we can expect SBR to be more volatile in the face of market movements, relative to its peers of similar size but with a lower proportion of fixed assets on their books. However, this is the opposite to what SBR’s actual beta value suggests, which is lower stock volatility relative to the market.
What this means for you:
You could benefit from lower risk during times of economic decline by holding onto SBR. Take into account your portfolio sensitivity to the market before you invest in the stock, as well as where we are in the current economic cycle. Depending on the composition of your portfolio, SBR may be a valuable stock to hold onto in order to cushion the impact of a downturn. What I have not mentioned in my article here are important company-specific fundamentals such as Sabre Resources’s financial health and performance track record. I urge you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:
1. Financial Health: Is SBR’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here.
2. Past Track Record: Has SBR 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 SBR’s historicals for more clarity.
3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.
To help readers see pass 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.
