High and Low BETA stocks (Market Close, September 12, 2023)
Which stocks have high or low BETA values?
What is a high BETA stock?
What is a low BETA stock?
This page provides the 25 highest and lowest BETA stocks over the past year vs. the S&P 500 Equity Index ETF.
The BETA of a stock is the degree of correlation between that stock and a specific stock index.
We notice the the long bond ETF, TLT or the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF now has a positive BETA of 15%. Gold shares AAAU and GLD have a positive BETA of around 23%. This relationship used to be negative not that long ago.
A stock with a very high BETA exaggerates and amplifies the movements of stock index. High BETA stocks may be more risky, as they act as a leveraged 'bet' on the overall stock market. One point strikes us as we write this: it is possible that stocks build up a high BETA value during a recent run or drop of the stock, and 'ride that value' for weeks or months. We see that with Digital Turbine or APPS, which has a high BETA but has been in a steady decline since their last earnings release, and is down almost 40% in a month or two. It still shows as a high BETA stock, but has not behaved that way recently.
A stock with a very low BETA moves very little relative to the overall market, and in some cases moves independently to the exchange. As an example, Campbell Soup Co, J.M. Smucker, Cal-Maine Foods, Conagra Brands, Hershey Company, Hormel Foods all are in the 50 stocks with the lowest BETA values. They move with the very slow moving changes in food consumption in America (see BLOG Post here), and their movements have less to do with stock market rallies or macroeconomic trends. Stocks with low BETA tend to be seen as safe and less volatile.
When the overall US equities market moves, high BETA stocks move more and low BETA stocks move less, all other conditions being equal.
There is a wide distribution of BETA values. The top 50 have a BETA value of 2.50 or higher, while the bottom 50 have a BETA value of 0.33 or lower. This trend continues. It is like stocks are now maintaining their correlations in a very calm market with lower price variances.
What is a high BETA stock?
What is a low BETA stock?
This page provides the 25 highest and lowest BETA stocks over the past year vs. the S&P 500 Equity Index ETF.
The BETA of a stock is the degree of correlation between that stock and a specific stock index.
We notice the the long bond ETF, TLT or the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF now has a positive BETA of 15%. Gold shares AAAU and GLD have a positive BETA of around 23%. This relationship used to be negative not that long ago.
A stock with a very high BETA exaggerates and amplifies the movements of stock index. High BETA stocks may be more risky, as they act as a leveraged 'bet' on the overall stock market. One point strikes us as we write this: it is possible that stocks build up a high BETA value during a recent run or drop of the stock, and 'ride that value' for weeks or months. We see that with Digital Turbine or APPS, which has a high BETA but has been in a steady decline since their last earnings release, and is down almost 40% in a month or two. It still shows as a high BETA stock, but has not behaved that way recently.
A stock with a very low BETA moves very little relative to the overall market, and in some cases moves independently to the exchange. As an example, Campbell Soup Co, J.M. Smucker, Cal-Maine Foods, Conagra Brands, Hershey Company, Hormel Foods all are in the 50 stocks with the lowest BETA values. They move with the very slow moving changes in food consumption in America (see BLOG Post here), and their movements have less to do with stock market rallies or macroeconomic trends. Stocks with low BETA tend to be seen as safe and less volatile.
When the overall US equities market moves, high BETA stocks move more and low BETA stocks move less, all other conditions being equal.
There is a wide distribution of BETA values. The top 50 have a BETA value of 2.50 or higher, while the bottom 50 have a BETA value of 0.33 or lower. This trend continues. It is like stocks are now maintaining their correlations in a very calm market with lower price variances.
25 High BETA Stocks & ETFs
0 HLGN 3.83581 Heliogen Inc
1 AFRM 3.56318 Affirm Holdings Inc
2 CKPT 3.51779 Checkpoint Therapeutics Inc
3 CDLX 3.51594 Cardlytics Inc
4 CVNA 3.50483 Carvana Co.
5 OPEN 3.36270 Opendoor Technologies Inc
6 TNA 3.30569 Direxion Dialy Small Cap Bull 3X Shares
7 APPS 3.12267 Digital Turbine Inc
8 COMP 3.09190 Compass Inc
9 WISH 3.08620 ContextLogic Inc
10 SKLZ 3.05412 Skillz Inc
11 RDFN 3.05326 Redfin Corp
12 NVTA 3.05111 Invitae Corp
13 REAL 3.04614 Therealreal Inc
14 PACW 3.03431 Pacwest Bancorp
15 MARA 3.03054 MARATHON DIGITAL HOLDINGS INC.
16 W 3.00054 Wayfair Inc
17 RXT 2.96299 Rackspace Technology Inc
18 SLQT 2.92676 SelectQuote Inc
19 QRTEA 2.92217 Qurate Retail Inc
20 UPST 2.87704 Upstart Holdings Inc
21 U 2.86272 Unity Software Inc
22 SDIG 2.84959 Stronghold Digital Mining Inc
23 HUT 2.84137 Hut 8 Mining Corp
24 TSP 2.81172 TuSimple Holdings Inc
1 AFRM 3.56318 Affirm Holdings Inc
2 CKPT 3.51779 Checkpoint Therapeutics Inc
3 CDLX 3.51594 Cardlytics Inc
4 CVNA 3.50483 Carvana Co.
5 OPEN 3.36270 Opendoor Technologies Inc
6 TNA 3.30569 Direxion Dialy Small Cap Bull 3X Shares
7 APPS 3.12267 Digital Turbine Inc
8 COMP 3.09190 Compass Inc
9 WISH 3.08620 ContextLogic Inc
10 SKLZ 3.05412 Skillz Inc
11 RDFN 3.05326 Redfin Corp
12 NVTA 3.05111 Invitae Corp
13 REAL 3.04614 Therealreal Inc
14 PACW 3.03431 Pacwest Bancorp
15 MARA 3.03054 MARATHON DIGITAL HOLDINGS INC.
16 W 3.00054 Wayfair Inc
17 RXT 2.96299 Rackspace Technology Inc
18 SLQT 2.92676 SelectQuote Inc
19 QRTEA 2.92217 Qurate Retail Inc
20 UPST 2.87704 Upstart Holdings Inc
21 U 2.86272 Unity Software Inc
22 SDIG 2.84959 Stronghold Digital Mining Inc
23 HUT 2.84137 Hut 8 Mining Corp
24 TSP 2.81172 TuSimple Holdings Inc
25 Lowest BETA stocks & ETFs (but still > 0.01):
1 WKC 0.01074 World Kinect Corp
2 SHY 0.01804 iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF
3 SPHR 0.03751 Sphere Entertainment Co
4 RDUS 0.04549 Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc.
5 LSXMA 0.05297 Liberty Media Corp.
6 CXT 0.06865 Crane NXT Co
7 LSXMK 0.07688 Liberty Media Corp.
8 BIOR 0.08679 Biora Therapeutics Inc
9 PSA 0.09882 Public Storage.
10 CR 0.10401 Crane Co
11 RVTY 0.11093 Revvity Inc.
12 IRBT 0.14029 Irobot Corp
13 TLT 0.14971 iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF
14 HIVE 0.15372 HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd.
15 PNM 0.15881 PNM Resources Inc
16 CEQPp 0.15930 Crestwood Equity Partners LP
17 GIS 0.17344 General Mills Inc.
18 ZVRA 0.17545 Zevra Therapeutics Inc
19 LIN 0.18551 Linde Plc.
20 GETY 0.18647 Getty Images Holdings Inc
21 CPB 0.19046 Campbell Soup Co.
22 SJM 0.20329 J.M. Smucker Co.
23 CALM 0.21656 Cal-Maine Foods Inc.
24 AAAU 0.22709 Goldman Sachs Physical Gold ETF
25 GLD 0.23233 SSgA SPDR Gold Shares
2 SHY 0.01804 iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF
3 SPHR 0.03751 Sphere Entertainment Co
4 RDUS 0.04549 Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc.
5 LSXMA 0.05297 Liberty Media Corp.
6 CXT 0.06865 Crane NXT Co
7 LSXMK 0.07688 Liberty Media Corp.
8 BIOR 0.08679 Biora Therapeutics Inc
9 PSA 0.09882 Public Storage.
10 CR 0.10401 Crane Co
11 RVTY 0.11093 Revvity Inc.
12 IRBT 0.14029 Irobot Corp
13 TLT 0.14971 iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF
14 HIVE 0.15372 HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd.
15 PNM 0.15881 PNM Resources Inc
16 CEQPp 0.15930 Crestwood Equity Partners LP
17 GIS 0.17344 General Mills Inc.
18 ZVRA 0.17545 Zevra Therapeutics Inc
19 LIN 0.18551 Linde Plc.
20 GETY 0.18647 Getty Images Holdings Inc
21 CPB 0.19046 Campbell Soup Co.
22 SJM 0.20329 J.M. Smucker Co.
23 CALM 0.21656 Cal-Maine Foods Inc.
24 AAAU 0.22709 Goldman Sachs Physical Gold ETF
25 GLD 0.23233 SSgA SPDR Gold Shares
Stocks with very low, positive BETA do not move with changes in the S&P 500. They act independently of the overall market movements. We call your attention to the iShares 1-3 year Treasury Bond ETF or SHY. It has a BETA of 2%, meaning that the market moves independently of short-term US bond yields. This is not the case with long bonds, as those have a BETA of 15% as shown by iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF or TLT.
Low BETA stocks may be considered safer in a downward moving market.
In all cases, please do your own due diligence before investing.
Low BETA stocks may be considered safer in a downward moving market.
In all cases, please do your own due diligence before investing.