If you're interested in COFIDE - Gruppo De Benedetti S.p.A. (BIT:COF), 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. Modern finance theory considers volatility to be a measure of risk, and there are two main types of price volatility. First, we have company specific volatility, which is the price gyrations of an individual stock. Holding at least 8 stocks can reduce this kind of risk across a 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 are more sensitive to general market forces than others. 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 below one is either less volatile than the market, or more volatile but not corellated with the overall market. In comparison a stock with a beta of over one tends to be move in a similar direction to the market in the long term, but with greater changes in price.
View our latest analysis for COFIDE - Gruppo De Benedetti
What we can learn from COF's beta value
Given that it has a beta of 1.23, we can surmise that the COFIDE - Gruppo De Benedetti share price has been fairly sensitive to market volatility (over the last 5 years). If this beta value holds true in the future, COFIDE - Gruppo De Benedetti shares are likely to rise more than the market when the market is going up, but fall faster when the market is going down. 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 COFIDE - Gruppo De Benedetti fares in that regard, below.
How does COF's size impact its beta?
With a market capitalisation of €328m, COFIDE - Gruppo De Benedetti 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 COFIDE - Gruppo De Benedetti has a reasonably high beta, it's worth considering why it is so heavily influenced by broader market sentiment. For example, it might be a high growth stock or have a lot of operating leverage in its business model. This article aims to educate investors about beta values, but it's well worth looking at important company-specific fundamentals such as COFIDE - Gruppo De Benedetti’s financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following: