Is Beta Coefficient Still A Valid Measure?

2. Beta for mercury is calculated by comparison with the companies having similar debt/equity ratio (25%). This beta is used in the calculation of cost of equity afterwards. The equity beta comes out to be 1.12.

We are interested in obtaining the asset beta for Collinsville investment. Here from the reading material, we find there were altogether 6 chemical companies that produce sodium chlorates. They are Hooker, Pennwalt, American, Kerr-McGee, Brunswick and Southern. However, since we are evaluating the addition of a sodium chlorate plant, the two firms (Brunswick and Southern) who specialize in producing sodium chlorate are likely the best “twins”. To determine the asset betas of each company, we

The table below shows the equity betas for the firms presented in the case (using Jan-92 to Dec-96 equal weight NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ as market portfolio):

Here we choose VW NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ data as market returns, because it’s value weighted and more reliable. The results show CSC’s equity beta = 2.27, QRG’s equity beta = 1.79.

Beta is the slope of the characteristic line. As shown in appendix1, we use the monthly historical data from April 2003 to April 2008 to graph SCL. We use S&P 500 as the market because it contains the stocks of 500 Large-Cap corporations and can reflect the market change broadly. As shown in exhibit 1, we can get the SCL: Ri-Rf = - 0.001 + 0.1649(Rm - Rf). So the beta is 0.1649 and the alpha (intercept) is -0.001. From the regression line, we find the R square is only 0.103. It reflects the degree that X variable explains Y variable is 10.3%. That is, Ri-Rf has no close relationship with Rm-Rf. In addition, due to the fact that beta is only 0.1649, it also provides the same result which Ri-Rf and Rm-Rf have no strong positive relationship. It is a good issue to consider why Wal-Mart stock return does not relate with S&P 500 return very well. From exhibit 2, we find the Wal-Mart price did not change very much while S&P 500 price went up. The major reasons may be that S&P 500 includes many high-tech stocks and those stocks performed very well during the period; therefore the volatility is greater than Wal-Mart. Moreover, maybe Wal-Mart has lower weight in S&P 500 so its trend of price change is different from S&P 500. From exhibit2, we also find Wal-Mart had good relationship with S&P 500 before 2004. To examine the situation, we use the data from 1998 to 2003 and find the SCL

The historical beta comes from historical data. This kind of beta would slope coefficient in a regression, and associated with company's stock returns and market returns. This approach is conceptually straightforward, and complications quickly arise in practice.

* Stock Beta: Exhibit 5 shows a detailed measurement of the company’s stock returns in relation to the rest of the market through 5-year historical price and index data. The analysis includes monthly returns of both the NYSE and the S&P 500 index in order to capture a comprehensive view of the market return. In each comparison, the monthly returns of the Target stock and market are plotted on Y-axis and X-axis respectively to get the regression line’s slope or beta. The analysis arrives at an average beta of 0.988 which indicates a similar movement of Target stock’s returns in comparison to the whole market over time.

The regression that we performed in excel for both stocks yielded a beta of .73576 for Reynolds, and a beta of 1.4198 for Hasbro. In question 2 we learned that although Reynolds stock was riskier independently, adding it to the portfolio made it more diversified compared to adding Hasbro, due to the fact that it was less correlated to the market portfolio. Beta is a measure of the volatility, or systematic risk, of a security or a portfolio in comparison to the market as a whole. Therefore, since the beta of Reynolds is lower than Hasbro, our beta calculations align with the fact that Reynolds stock makes the overall portfolio less risky. This finding is also intuitive when considering the nature of the companies; Reynolds is a Tobacco company meaning that is should be less sensitive to changes in market conditions than a toy company like Hasbro.

In the Fama & French paper, they found that: 1) stocks with high beta did not have consistently higher returns than low-beta stocks; 2)

2. Compares the returns of the asset to the market over a period of time (Beta)

13. According to these three scatterplots, three-year data and three-month data both show the beta of holding Under Armour shares should be around 1.22~1.23. However,

For example : The UK govt bonds is providing a return of 3% and the average market rate of return is 8.7% .The investor is expecting to invest in ABC ltd , listed in LSE .The beta calculated is 0.9 . Therfore on calculating , Rf = 3 , Rm = 8.7 , β = 0.9 . The return on investment comes out to be as 8.13 which is less than the rate of average market return . Therefore , it would not be beneficial to invest in shares of ABC Ltd .

This beta is calculated using 40 years of data from Jan 2nd, 1962 to Dec 30th, 2002 (Because the data for historical price of Boeing before 1962 is not available)

The estimated beta of firm is about 1.27. This figure is retrieved from a reliable website-www.finance.yahoo.com.

A negative beta means that the asset’s returns generally move opposite the market’s returns. One will tend to be above its average when the other is below its average. Beta is also referred to as a financial elasticity or correlated relative volatility, and can be referred to as a measure of the sensitivity of the asset’s returns to market returns. Measuring beta can give clues to volatility and liquidity in the marketplace. Investors can find the best use of the beta ratio in short-term decision making, where price volatility is important. If you are planning to buy and sell within a short period, beta is a good measure of risk.