Low Beta Stocks

Beta is the a calculation that measures the relative volatility of a stock in correlation to a particular standard. For U.S. stocks that standard is usually, but not always, the S&P 500. Beta is a form of regression analysis and it can be useful for investors regardless of their risk tolerance. Beta is considered one of the few data points that can be beneficial for practitioners of both fundamental analysis and technical analysis. This page lists stocks that have unusually low beta calculations, meaning there is little correlation between the price moves of these stocks and the S&P 500. Learn more about low beta stocks.

Company	Current Price	Beta	PE Ratio	Market Cap	Volume	Average Volume	Indicator(s)
TIOA Tio Tech A	$10.18 -0.1%	0.01	27.51	$437.94 million	900	359,086	News Coverage
PV Primavera Capital Acquisition	$5.35 -0.4%	0.01	16.21	$287.56 million	351,998	103,184	Gap Down High Trading Volume
VLAT Valor Latitude Acquisition	$10.28	0.01	33.16	$295.55 million	0	85,021
LANV Lanvin Group	$5.35 -0.4%	0.01	16.21	$700.70 million	351,998	201,848	Upcoming Earnings Gap Down
FICV Frontier Investment	$10.31 +0.2%	0.01	39.66	$257.75 million	4,406	41,340	News Coverage
STET ST Energy Transition I	$10.47 +0.2%	0.01	15.40	$316.09 million	37,499	317,107	Upcoming Earnings

DKDCA Data Knights Acquisition	$10.94 +0.5%	0.02	364.67	$82.82 million	118,076	864	Upcoming Earnings High Trading Volume
INSW International Seaways	$37.94 -0.3%	0.02	3.29	$1.87 billion	463,365	654,672	Analyst Report Short Interest ↑
CIZN Citizens	$12.82 +0.2%	0.02	8.27	$71.92 million	579	3,891
PBHC Pathfinder Bancorp	$13.00 -2.6%	0.03	6.28	$60.45 million	1,795	2,375	Positive News Gap Down
OXAC Oxbridge Acquisition	$10.85	0.03	24.11	$45.35 million	22	1,652
BSAQ Black Spade Acquisition	$10.30	0.04	16.61	$217.64 million	537,753	79,921	News Coverage High Trading Volume
SIEB Siebert Financial	$2.24 -3.4%	0.04	32.00	$72.82 million	30,991	174,700	Analyst Report
ZTO ZTO Express (Cayman)	$29.04 +2.0%	0.04	23.80	$18.03 billion	8.33 million	2.72 million	Analyst Report News Coverage Gap Up High Trading Volume
PLMR Palomar	$50.95 +1.8%	0.04	23.70	$1.27 billion	142,839	146,548	Analyst Upgrade
TDCX TDCX	$8.40 -0.2%	0.04	16.47	$1.20 billion	30,266	76,305
FANH Fanhua	$7.70 +4.9%	0.05	29.62	$413.61 million	30,214	28,892	Upcoming Earnings Analyst Report
CULL Cullman Bancorp	$10.59	0.06	19.98	$78.15 million	1	1,744	News Coverage
YMM Full Truck Alliance	$5.89 -2.8%	0.07	117.82	$6.51 billion	2.10 million	6.35 million	Upcoming Earnings
PROC Procaps Group	$4.51 -0.2%	0.08	11.00	$508.82 million	8,468	29,672	Analyst Revision News Coverage Gap Down
OSUR OraSure Technologies	$5.36 -1.3%	0.08	13.74	$392.67 million	642,547	580,055
NAT Nordic American Tankers	$3.60 -1.4%	0.09	60.00	$751.68 million	2.51 million	3.12 million	Upcoming Earnings
TNP Tsakos Energy Navigation	$17.34 -0.1%	0.09	2.97	$511.70 million	240,453	385,335
GLDI Credit Suisse X-Links Gold Shares Covered Call ETN	$145.45 -0.8%	0.10	186.53	$58.18 million	4,146	5,422	News Coverage
IHT InnSuites Hospitality Trust	$1.48	0.10	24.67	$13.59 million	4,577	13,954	Positive News
CGEM Cullinan Oncology	$8.80 -0.3%	0.10	7.21	$346.37 million	144,607	201,642
CHMG Chemung Financial	$34.87 -0.5%	0.11	5.62	$164.24 million	15,653	13,629	Analyst Report
HMNF HMN Financial	$18.12 +0.4%	0.12	9.69	$81.38 million	1,198	2,896	Positive News
TR Tootsie Roll Industries	$37.52 -0.2%	0.13	34.33	$2.64 billion	138,673	130,041	Analyst Report News Coverage
MSVB Mid-Southern Bancorp	$9.17 -1.5%	0.13	14.11	$26.41 million	3,324	2,912	Positive News
SDPI Superior Drilling Products	$0.98 -1.0%	0.13	12.25	$28.67 million	25,847	76,443	Analyst Report
MGYR Magyar Bancorp	$10.02 -1.2%	0.13	8.15	$67.03 million	3,128	4,070
CHT Chunghwa Telecom	$40.90 -0.2%	0.13	25.89	$31.73 billion	86,108	118,921	News Coverage
VSTA Vasta Platform	$3.46 -2.5%	0.13	25.21	$285.97 million	6,358	14,258
ESP Espey Mfg. & Electronics	$18.81 -5.1%	0.14	15.17	$50.79 million	13,836	7,972	Analyst Report Gap Down
GLBS Globus Maritime	$0.94	0.14	0.79	$19.24 million	38,334	71,530	Gap Up
PNT POINT Biopharma Global	$10.45 -3.8%	0.14	12.44	$1.10 billion	812,856	632,802	Analyst Revision
COCO Vita Coco	$24.48 -0.9%	0.14	111.28	$1.38 billion	332,876	316,614
OVBC Ohio Valley Banc	$24.50 +0.0%	0.14	8.91	$117.11 million	3,652	4,170	Analyst Report News Coverage
BLFY Blue Foundry Bancorp	$9.12 +1.4%	0.15	456.23	$241.13 million	138,527	123,975	Analyst Report News Coverage

FCAL First Trust California Municipal High Income ETF	$48.96 -0.5%	0.15	128.84	$119.95 million	20,429	14,774	Positive News
GRVY Gravity	$58.25 -2.9%	0.15	5.25	$404.84 million	7,340	22,057	Analyst Downgrade
ARTNA Artesian Resources	$55.11 -0.4%	0.16	30.45	$523.55 million	18,419	39,717	Analyst Report Positive News
HRL Hormel Foods	$39.27 -0.2%	0.17	21.94	$21.46 billion	1.91 million	1.97 million	Analyst Report Positive News
IGIC International General Insurance	$8.27 -2.6%	0.17	4.75	$388.94 million	63,842	46,100	Short Interest ↑
NAPA Duckhorn Portfolio	$13.97 +0.6%	0.17	28.51	$1.61 billion	955,642	500,707
GLG TD	$0.60 -6.7%	0.17	5.55	$86.71 million	106,022	392,151
CLBK Columbia Financial	$15.72 -1.4%	0.19	19.65	$1.66 billion	134,514	201,088
UTMD Utah Medical Products	$93.72 -0.5%	0.19	19.90	$340.20 million	3,075	8,665	Analyst Report News Coverage
BIIB Biogen	$305.45 -0.3%	0.19	14.18	$44.21 billion	616,593	981,132	Analyst Report
SJM J. M. Smucker	$151.88 -1.8%	0.21	22.87	$16.20 billion	936,318	896,556	Analyst Report
OPOF Old Point Financial	$16.59 +3.0%	0.21	8.17	$82.43 million	3,993	4,197	Dividend Announcement News Coverage
FRO Frontline	$14.49 -1.1%	0.21	6.74	$3.23 billion	3.15 million	3.57 million	Upcoming Earnings Analyst Report
BNTX BioNTech	$104.95 -0.2%	0.21	4.03	$25.52 billion	604,446	686,843	Analyst Upgrade
VIRT Virtu Financial	$18.17 +0.5%	0.21	9.18	$2.99 billion	611,347	1.30 million	Analyst Report
SELF Global Self Storage	$5.09 +0.6%	0.21	20.36	$56.70 million	5,753	25,849
ATHM Autohome	$30.24 -6.0%	0.22	13.75	$3.80 billion	865,402	588,380
NATH Nathan's Famous	$69.46 -4.1%	0.22	15.40	$283.40 million	23,113	6,121	Analyst Report High Trading Volume
EURN Euronav	$16.17 -1.3%	0.22	7.74	$3.26 billion	1.19 million	2.02 million	Analyst Report Options Volume
BAFN BayFirst Financial	$14.25 -5.0%	0.22	178.13	$58.50 million	5,630	2,704	Gap Down High Trading Volume
LANC Lancaster Colony	$208.46 -0.3%	0.22	43.79	$5.76 billion	138,341	150,988	Analyst Report Positive News
FCAP First Capital	$24.25	0.22	6.17	$81.46 million	1,007	4,793	Analyst Report
UBCP United Bancorp	$11.82 -1.9%	0.23	7.72	$69.89 million	1,637	4,522	Gap Up
HAPP Happiness Development Group	$2.95 +0.7%	0.23	6.15	$20.52 million	6,835	14,340	Gap Down
REGN Regeneron Pharmaceuticals	$747.48 -0.3%	0.23	20.31	$81.72 billion	501,269	600,803	Analyst Report
EIG Employers	$37.53 +0.2%	0.24	13.80	$1.01 billion	113,614	135,477	Analyst Report
STER Sterling Check	$12.33 +0.7%	0.24	88.07	$1.21 billion	148,382	153,336
IH iHuman	$3.76 +0.3%	0.24	12.53	$201.42 million	11,096	28,446	Gap Up
GCBC Greene County Bancorp	$21.11 +1.9%	0.25	11.50	$359.50 million	17,304	21,982	Analyst Upgrade News Coverage
CTRA Coterra Energy	$25.45 +3.3%	0.25	4.86	$19.28 billion	11.13 million	8.50 million	Analyst Report Short Interest ↓
FVCB FVCBankcorp	$9.40 -0.3%	0.25	9.65	$166.38 million	20,229	56,483
PFIS Peoples Financial Services	$39.50	0.25	7.90	$282.43 million	16,616	10,005	Analyst Upgrade Insider Buying News Coverage
PPIH Perma-Pipe International	$10.26 -1.5%	0.25	14.25	$82.08 million	4,227	8,065
BZ Kanzhun	$17.06 -4.2%	0.25	341.20	$6.39 billion	2.37 million	2.59 million	Upcoming Earnings
TCBX Third Coast Bancshares	$16.10 +2.0%	0.26	9.82	$218.64 million	98,418	33,977	High Trading Volume
FINW FinWise Bancorp	$7.81 -1.1%	0.26	5.35	$100.12 million	9,625	13,227	Short Interest ↓
GIS General Mills	$88.50 -1.5%	0.27	19.11	$52.52 billion	3.39 million	3.23 million	Analyst Report Insider Selling Short Interest ↓
ESSA ESSA Bancorp	$13.05 -0.6%	0.27	6.24	$135.75 million	30,003	13,217	Analyst Report Gap Up High Trading Volume
FCN FTI Consulting	$178.64 +0.6%	0.28	28.58	$6.07 billion	303,508	236,003	Analyst Report Analyst Revision Positive News
CFFI C&F Financial	$50.02 -1.3%	0.28	5.82	$174.03 million	12,676	6,669	Dividend Announcement Analyst Report News Coverage
NRP Natural Resource Partners	$50.32 +1.7%	0.28	3.71	$636.05 million	22,137	25,380	Ex-Dividend Analyst Report News Coverage
SPOK Spok	$13.21	0.28	8.20	$263.54 million	191,159	212,165
PINC Premier	$26.67 -0.9%	0.28	17.32	$3.18 billion	613,595	658,706	Analyst Report
ARKO Arko	$7.43 +3.0%	0.28	15.81	$893.90 million	218,039	208,938	News Coverage
BFC Bank First	$70.40 -0.6%	0.28	13.21	$731.46 million	19,481	20,512
JCTCF Jewett-Cameron Trading	$4.67 -1.1%	0.28	66.72	$16.35 million	1,623	3,955
CZFS Citizens Financial Services	$79.58 +0.6%	0.28	10.81	$315.93 million	10,706	15,226	Short Interest ↑ Positive News
NHC National HealthCare	$59.48 +1.4%	0.29	48.75	$911.23 million	43,398	70,603	Analyst Report
QDEL QuidelOrtho	$86.98 -0.8%	0.29	47.79	$5.80 billion	328,887	448,969	Analyst Report
OVLY Oak Valley Bancorp	$23.47 +1.1%	0.29	6.48	$194.33 million	98,755	25,607	Analyst Report High Trading Volume

EQC Equity Commonwealth	$21.15 +1.0%	0.30	45.98	$2.32 billion	1.18 million	1.17 million	News Coverage Trading Halted
USCB USCB Financial	$9.82 +1.8%	0.30	9.35	$192.67 million	21,335	28,161	Gap Down
SIM Grupo Simec	$31.29	0.30	14.42	$4.82 billion	112	1,674	Upcoming Earnings Analyst Report
STCN Steel Connect	$0.83	0.30	1.50	$50.18 million	48,254	81,873
CLX Clorox	$166.11 -0.5%	0.30	286.40	$20.53 billion	896,919	1.24 million	Analyst Report
BRBS Blue Ridge Bankshares	$8.60 +5.4%	0.30	13.65	$162.88 million	51,042	29,557
MNSO MINISO Group	$16.00 -8.6%	0.31	32.00	$5.05 billion	1.39 million	1.48 million	News Coverage
LARK Landmark Bancorp	$20.50 +1.4%	0.31	10.64	$107.01 million	1,144	3,909	Analyst Report Short Interest ↓
HSY Hershey	$266.84 +0.1%	0.31	32.38	$54.54 billion	1.01 million	1.02 million	Analyst Report Insider Selling
FNCB FNCB Bancorp	$5.75 -3.5%	0.31	6.05	$113.16 million	30,549	20,637	Positive News

What Are Low Beta Stocks

Many retail investors assume that you can’t predict the stock market. And since you can’t predict it, they assume that investing in stocks carries a certain amount of risk. Well, as it turns out, there is a way to assess the risk of a particular security: it’s called beta. Low beta stocks are those securities that carry the lowest amount of risk.

How to Use Low Beta Stocks to Minimize Risk and Increase Returns

What Is the Beta of a Stock?
How to Calculate Beta
Low Beta Strategy
How to Reduce Risk in Your Portfolio
Is It Smart to Invest in Low Beta Stocks?

Beta is essentially a measure of a stock’s volatility. Risk level is one of the most important stats to analyze in terms of investing in stocks. A comparison of a stock’s risk factor to your own level of risk tolerance will help you know whether to buy, sell, or avoid a certain security. Beta is the number that will help you understand a stock’s level of risk and make those decisions.

What Is the Beta of a Stock?

In the simplest terms, beta is a tool that compares how volatile a stock is in comparison to the overall market. The stock market is the “control” and has a definitive benchmark beta of 1.0, while each individual security is the “variable,” with a beta that varies in terms of how much the stock moves around.

A stock that is more volatile than the market has a beta of more than 1.0, while a stock that is less volatile than the market has a beta of less than 1.0. If you’re a short-term trader riding the market waves and looking at stock market gainers, stock beta can let you know which securities might be the riskiest—then you can decide whether or not to get involved.

As you can see from this explanation, risky stocks are not the only ones that carry risk. Every one of the individual stocks can be viewed as a risky stock to some degree, even if the degree is negligible. Even in bull markets, when it seems like the sky’s the limit forever, it’s impossible for a stock to mirror the benchmark.

How to Calculate Beta

The beta of a stock is calculated using regression analysis. In short, regression analysis is all about comparing one stable variable with other changing variables. The formula for calculating a stock’s beta is simple in theory—beta is found by dividing covariance by variance.

Covariance represents how similar or dissimilar two numbers are in their movements—in this case, a stock is being compared to the market. Positive numbers indicate that their movement is similar. Negative numbers indicate that their movements are different.

Variance represents how much the “control” variable bounces around in comparison to its mean—its normal state. To keep it short and sweet, a stock’s beta is calculated with the intention of assessing how similar or divergent a stock’s movement is in comparison to the market—and thereby determining its volatility. Beta, in turn, can be worked into a complex equation to create a Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). This equation helps calculate the expected return of an asset, using its risk-free rate as a starting point (a hypothetical rate of return involving no risk).

Beyond beta, other formulas, such as the Sharpe Ratio—which uses standard deviation—can help investors determine how much additional yield they’ll get for every increase per unit of risk. Then there is tracking error, which helps investors understand how much performance has deviated from the intended benchmark.

As you can see, beta is the gateway stat for an in-depth, computational way of growing equity through leveraging statistical opportunities in the stock market.

Low Beta Strategy

Low Beta Strategy focuses on investing in securities that have a low beta. These are stocks issued by companies in a sector like consumer goods, food, and utilities. This type of asset tends to avoid wild fluctuations because its line of business is both necessary and consistent. For example, utility companies exert a relative monopoly over their local region and face little competition in their sector.

Low Beta stocks are safer in terms of price when the market is down—they match the market, and don’t wildly plummet while the market is coasting. However, when the market is up, the same logic applies: these stocks gain less than some of their more volatile counterparts.

Some investment strategies actually involving investing in both low and high beta stocks simultaneously. Stocks with a higher beta—which can experience greater price fluctuations—can present opportunities for big gains through short-term trading of these volatility stocks. To offset potential losses, the investor will also buy into stocks with a lower beta and hold onto them for longer periods of time. This statistical arbitrage strategy is referred to as the bet against beta.

How to Reduce Risk in Your Portfolio

Unfortunately, beta is not a catchall indicator that can prevent losing your earnings to risky investments. While beta is a mathematical measure of how volatile a stock is in comparison to the market, it says nothing about other factors, like how a company operates, its debt, or current events that can affect its operations—such as its potential in regard to future earnings.

For example, a company in a stable industry like utilities can be poorly run, on the brink of bankruptcy, and facing a cataclysmic shutdown due to a recent energy-related event—but because it’s historically moved in close tandem with the overall market, it’s beta is low. Doesn’t sound like a good investment, does it?

One way to reduce risk in your portfolio is to diversify your investments. In terms of stocks, this can mean diversifying your portfolio through a range of companies and industries. However, if you want to truly minimize risk, the majority of your portfolio should be invested in stable, established, non-speculative securities, and preferably ones that pay good dividends or offer opportunities for growth.

One of the easiest ways to avoid risk is to invest in mutual funds or ETFs. This type of fund pools money from a number of investors. With a larger amount of money to play with, mutual fund managers can spread it out over a broader range of securities than each individual investor would be able to buy on their own. You can also diversify risk by investing in different types of asset classes. Between stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, and business ownership, there are a number of vehicles for producing cash flow. A capital asset like a paid-off rental property can even produce free cash flow, unencumbered by expenses (this is every investor’s golden egg).

If your money is diversified, when one of your investments takes a hit, you won’t have to lose all your eggs—you’ve placed them in different baskets. While much ink has been spilled about which type of asset can consistently outperform the others in terms of growth, everyone can agree that at different times one asset outperforms the others; they all carry a degree of historical volatility (even real estate).

If you do want to pick out which stock comprises your portfolio, another strategy for reducing risk is to invest in established, stable companies—but these companies are stable beyond their beta score. Large blue-chip companies, like those you’ll find in Warren Buffet’s portfolio, have been around for decades. They are well run, well-financed, and have low amounts of debt. Beta says nothing about the degree of competence with which a company is run, although competently-run, long-standing companies usually do have a lower beta score.

Even if you’re trying to avoid too much risk, most financiers would agree that it’s okay to take a small percentage of your portfolio (financial experts such as Benjamin Graham have suggested no more than 5%) and look at cheap stocks to buy. These stocks might be riskier, but they can also provide good returns if they work out. If they don’t, your losses will be marginal.

Is It Smart to Invest in Low Beta Stocks?

While beta is used to analyze risk, it does have some shortcomings. As mentioned, beta is a comparative statistic that says nothing about how a company is run. It’s been described by analysts as a sort of rearview mirror, reflecting what’s behind, but not necessarily what’s ahead (which, by contrast, is very impacted by the degree of managerial competence and current events).

That said, beta can be a good tool for short-game investors looking to minimize risk. For long-term investors, it’s not necessarily that useful.

Moreover, beta is a number that says nothing about a stock’s price movement in terms of whether it’s going up or down. All beta tells you is a stock’s volatility relative to the market. This is especially problematic in light of the fact that investors, especially short-term traders, make their moves based on stock prices. However, in conjunction with other stats that give a more complete picture of a stock and its performance, beta can be a useful tool for assessing a security’s level of risk—for short term investors. Long-term investors will want to get a more complete picture of a company, how it’s run, and its level of debt before making an investment.

Investors should not just look at a stock’s beta, but also examine their own level of risk tolerance. Younger investors building a retirement portfolio can afford to take on more risks. After all, they have decades of investment ahead of them. Older investors nearing retirement want to avoid risk and do what they can to stabilize their portfolio as much as possible since it will become a source of income.

There are many strategies for investing in stocks, and they all depend on the investor's preferred mode of gain. A dividend investing strategy can turn rivulets of pennies into a mighty dividend stream, which is great for investors who want passive income. Day trading is great for investors who are skilled enough to leverage swings in the most volatile stocks at the drop of a hat. Other investors might find themselves somewhere between the long game and the short game, figuring out the best growth stocks to scoop up and sell at a profit weeks or months later.

Institutional investors may make a beta calculation as part of their equity and growth strategy, but it’s not the only tool they leverage for assessing how to respond to systematic risk. They do an in-depth micro and macro analysis of stats like market capitalization and general market volatility. Investors also perform fundamental and financial analysis of a company to consider future growth and dividend yield.

Low Beta Stocks

Beta tells you how risky a stock is by comparing its activity to that of the market. It’s important to combine financial signifiers like beta and even professional analyst ratings with fundamental analysis of a company. Alternatively, you can turn over investment decisions to a money manager.

Assessing the balance between risk and reward as it relates to financial gain is the bread and butter of short-term trading. But if short-term trading is not for you, you may consider other strategies such as searching for dividend-paying stocks, the snowballing equity of which can be rolled back into more dividend stocks. Retail investors can also piggyback invest by mimicking the portfolio of established investors with a track record of success. These strategies can be a much easier way for the average investor to increase their stock market earnings than attempting to leverage stock market beta. However, if you are looking to leverage short positions through day trading or similarly short-term asset growth, beta can be a useful tool for determining the risk of a particular security.

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Low Beta Stocks

What Are Low Beta Stocks

What Is the Beta of a Stock?

How to Calculate Beta

Low Beta Strategy

How to Reduce Risk in Your Portfolio

Is It Smart to Invest in Low Beta Stocks?

Low Beta Stocks

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