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)
LCAA L Catterton Asia Acquisition	$10.78	0.01	269.57	$312.04 million	4,931	97,864	Short Interest ↓ News Coverage Positive News
PV Primavera Capital Acquisition	$2.95 -3.6%	0.01	8.94	$158.56 million	16,111	103,184
VINP Vinci Partners Investments	$10.95 -0.4%	0.01	15.00	$603.14 million	6,615	67,392	Positive News
OPA Magnum Opus Acquisition	$10.79 -0.2%	0.01	17.69	$125.12 million	156	30,686	Upcoming Earnings News Coverage
TFPM Triple Flag Precious Metals	$13.31 +0.1%	0.01	55.46	$2.68 billion	174,094	159,164	Analyst Upgrade Positive News
BLEU bleuacacia	$10.75	0.02	56.58	$91.20 million	2	12,606	Positive News
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SPC CrossingBridge Pre-Merger SPAC ETF	$21.17 +0.0%	0.03	33.41	$67.74 million	40,700	20,314	Dividend Increase Ex-Dividend Short Interest ↑ High Trading Volume
ZTO ZTO Express (Cayman)	$21.28 +2.0%	0.03	14.28	$12.91 billion	2.94 million	3.07 million
CIZN Citizens	$7.75 -1.5%	0.04	8.52	$43.46 million	14,512	33,765	News Coverage
CFSB CFSB Bancorp	$6.45 +2.1%	0.05	43.01	$42.79 million	4,184	3,995
PROC Procaps Group	$4.07 -1.7%	0.05	7.83	$459.18 million	46,246	64,501	Earnings Report
ENCP Energem	$11.31 -1.2%	0.05	188.53	$38.49 million	160	1,933	Positive News
TNP Tsakos Energy Navigation	$22.22 -1.2%	0.06	1.96	$655.62 million	266,576	317,531
INSW International Seaways	$45.48 +0.3%	0.06	3.51	$2.22 billion	380,086	588,982	Short Interest ↑
FANH Fanhua	$6.65 +2.3%	0.07	6.72	$384.86 million	8,349	24,025	News Coverage Positive News
AMRK A-Mark Precious Metals	$30.25 -4.2%	0.07	5.72	$702.13 million	180,448	227,861	Positive News
PSHG Performance Shipping	$2.27 -0.4%	0.08	0.92	$25.67 million	103,043	142,409	Positive News
BIIB Biogen	$258.77 -0.7%	0.08	25.72	$37.50 billion	802,816	1.15 million
PBHC Pathfinder Bancorp	$14.01 -0.1%	0.08	8.34	$66.12 million	974	1,930	Dividend Announcement Positive News
GO Grocery Outlet	$26.96 0.0%	0.09	33.28	$2.68 billion	950,845	1.11 million	Short Interest ↑
CULL Cullman Bancorp	$10.77 -0.3%	0.09	20.32	$78.15 million	4,765	4,028	Short Interest ↑ News Coverage
GLDI Credit Suisse X-Links Gold Shares Covered Call ETN	$144.84 -0.1%	0.10	185.75	$57.94 million	1,691	3,975	Positive News
RGCO RGC Resources	$20.34 -1.7%	0.10	17.84	$204.05 million	12,210	22,676	Analyst Upgrade Short Interest ↑ News Coverage
SSBK Southern States Bancshares	$29.28 -2.2%	0.11	7.83	$258.73 million	8,211	25,650	Positive News
HMNF HMN Financial	$23.00 -1.5%	0.12	14.47	$103.21 million	3,599	18,122	Positive News
CLST Catalyst Bancorp	$10.84 +1.0%	0.13	108.41	$51.70 million	3,845	2,802	Short Interest ↑
CHT Chunghwa Telecom	$39.07 +0.6%	0.13	25.21	$30.31 billion	110,635	110,926	Short Interest ↑ Negative News
OVBC Ohio Valley Banc	$23.00 +0.2%	0.13	8.49	$109.78 million	388	2,069	Analyst Report Positive News
NAT Nordic American Tankers	$4.20 -0.7%	0.13	7.50	$876.94 million	2.68 million	3.70 million
COCO Vita Coco	$25.65 +0.2%	0.13	40.08	$1.46 billion	365,827	507,846	Positive News
GRNT Granite Ridge Resources	$6.02 -0.5%	0.13	6.62	$800.68 million	668,416	797,094	Short Interest ↑ News Coverage
REGN Regeneron Pharmaceuticals	$878.29 -0.4%	0.14	25.05	$95.69 billion	534,334	610,387	Analyst Upgrade Insider Selling News Coverage
SIEB Siebert Financial	$1.68 +0.6%	0.15	10.50	$66.50 million	27,694	15,829	Analyst Report
FCAL First Trust California Municipal High Income ETF	$49.91 +0.3%	0.15	131.34	$157.22 million	66,596	19,502	Short Interest ↑ High Trading Volume
FICV Frontier Investment	$13.20	0.15	37.72	$102.08 million	33	3,011	Positive News
CO Global Cord Blood	$1.22 -15.9%	0.16	1.91	$148.29 million	370,564	216,519	Analyst Report News Coverage Gap Down
IGIC International General Insurance	$12.88 -1.2%	0.16	5.46	$605.80 million	27,385	75,895	Short Interest ↑ News Coverage
PLMR Palomar	$55.50 -0.4%	0.16	19.61	$1.37 billion	86,718	155,504	News Coverage Positive News
FCN FTI Consulting	$199.15 -0.1%	0.17	29.46	$7.07 billion	176,962	272,521	Short Interest ↓
TDCX TDCX	$4.85 +3.4%	0.17	8.36	$702.85 million	65,480	75,337	News Coverage

CRCT Cricut	$6.59	0.18	27.46	$1.44 billion	423,379	758,412	Positive News
REFI Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance	$16.18 +0.8%	0.18	8.01	$294.18 million	97,290	102,884	Positive News
JBSS John B. Sanfilippo & Son	$103.04 -2.5%	0.19	18.50	$1.19 billion	62,005	55,670	Insider Selling Short Interest ↑ News Coverage
CLBK Columbia Financial	$19.28 -2.1%	0.19	38.56	$2.03 billion	77,037	90,290	Short Interest ↑
TR Tootsie Roll Industries	$33.24 +1.2%	0.19	26.61	$2.31 billion	74,221	76,834	News Coverage
JRVR James River Group	$9.24 -3.7%	0.19	5.89	$347.79 million	1.52 million	1.48 million	Short Interest ↑ News Coverage
FRO Frontline	$20.05 +0.4%	0.20	5.73	$4.46 billion	1.92 million	2.94 million	Short Interest ↓ Positive News
SELF Global Self Storage	$4.64 +0.8%	0.20	23.18	$51.65 million	36,782	39,099	News Coverage Positive News
IHT InnSuites Hospitality Trust	$1.69 +10.5%	0.20	28.17	$15.22 million	63,671	8,537	Insider Buying News Coverage Positive News Gap Up High Trading Volume
MSVB Mid-Southern Bancorp	$10.12 +0.7%	0.20	17.45	$29.20 million	3,819	2,003	News Coverage
OBT Orange County Bancorp	$60.24 -4.7%	0.22	11.16	$340.39 million	9,052	14,369	News Coverage Positive News
PPIH Perma-Pipe International	$7.94 +0.1%	0.22	12.80	$64 million	9,122	16,021	Short Interest ↑
LANV Lanvin Group	$2.95 -3.6%	0.22	8.94	$386.36 million	16,111	37,007	Upcoming Earnings Short Interest ↑
OSUR OraSure Technologies	$8.20 -1.1%	0.22	12.42	$602.57 million	820,464	846,011	Positive News
ARTNA Artesian Resources	$41.45 -3.0%	0.22	26.57	$425.98 million	24,510	36,083	Short Interest ↓ Positive News
HAPP Happiness Development Group	$2.46 -0.4%	0.23	5.13	$17.11 million	19,789	14,340	Gap Down
CIA Citizens	$2.69 -7.6%	0.23	7.91	$133.30 million	239,470	52,018	Gap Down High Trading Volume
FVCB FVCBankcorp	$14.20 -2.7%	0.23	20.40	$252.79 million	19,496	30,249	Short Interest ↓ News Coverage
CHMG Chemung Financial	$49.80 -0.7%	0.23	8.22	$235.19 million	8,559	14,148	Short Interest ↓ News Coverage Positive News
NAPA Duckhorn Portfolio	$9.85 -1.6%	0.23	17.59	$1.14 billion	938,172	1.17 million	Positive News
SAFT Safety Insurance Group	$75.99 -0.4%	0.23	36.01	$1.12 billion	39,815	73,286	Positive News
PXS Pyxis Tankers	$4.17 +1.2%	0.24	2.41	$44.26 million	75,462	96,410	Positive News
HRL Hormel Foods	$32.11 +0.5%	0.24	21.99	$17.56 billion	1.99 million	2.51 million	Insider Selling Short Interest ↑
ATHM Autohome	$28.06 +1.5%	0.24	12.09	$3.52 billion	447,577	462,142
EIG Employers	$39.40 -0.3%	0.24	8.91	$1.01 billion	93,596	167,568
GIS General Mills	$65.14 +0.3%	0.25	15.85	$36.99 billion	3.81 million	4.16 million	Positive News
UTMD Utah Medical Products	$84.22 -2.0%	0.25	18.15	$305.68 million	6,984	11,802
MGYR Magyar Bancorp	$11.23 -0.2%	0.25	9.35	$74.73 million	1,151	6,178	News Coverage Positive News
TRMD TORM	$30.41 +0.2%	0.25	3.76	$2.48 billion	372,992	655,048
CFFI C&F Financial	$68.19 -0.9%	0.26	8.14	$229.70 million	4,697	10,532	Short Interest ↑ News Coverage
OFED Oconee Federal Financial	$13.25 +6.3%	0.27	30.11	$74.31 million	139	2,656	Gap Up
NATH Nathan's Famous	$78.01	0.27	16.25	$318.26 million	1,923	6,246	Short Interest ↑
OCUP Ocuphire Pharma	$3.01 -2.9%	0.27	2.30	$68.14 million	308,823	254,401	Positive News
BNTX BioNTech	$105.54 -0.2%	0.27	9.15	$25.09 billion	500,630	787,801
ICCH ICC	$15.30 +0.3%	0.27	9.87	$48.04 million	341	1,727	Short Interest ↓ News Coverage
LANC Lancaster Colony	$166.39 +0.1%	0.27	39.06	$4.58 billion	178,750	132,887	Positive News
ESSA ESSA Bancorp	$20.02 -1.0%	0.27	10.54	$202.84 million	9,671	29,209	Short Interest ↑
KEQU Kewaunee Scientific	$29.07 -0.4%	0.27	12.21	$84.42 million	8,969	7,969	Short Interest ↓ Positive News
OPOF Old Point Financial	$17.93 +2.3%	0.28	10.07	$90.33 million	3,674	2,912	Analyst Report Positive News
BOWL Bowlero	$14.16 +0.8%	0.28	23.21	$2.14 billion	1.67 million	1.16 million	Positive News
OPXS Optex Systems	$6.55 +1.5%	0.29	19.28	$44.47 million	86,090	50,025	Short Interest ↓ Positive News
GILD Gilead Sciences	$81.01 -0.2%	0.29	17.38	$100.94 billion	3.59 million	6.49 million	Short Interest ↑
WVFC WVS Financial	$12.70 +1.6%	0.29	13.09	$24.25 million	2,685	381	High Trading Volume
EQC Equity Commonwealth	$19.20 -0.6%	0.29	27.43	$2.05 billion	717,016	1.05 million	Positive News
YS YS Biopharma	$0.51 +8.2%	0.30	0.59	$47.55 million	194,993	112,524	Upcoming Earnings Positive News
VLGEA Village Super Market	$26.23 +1.7%	0.30	7.69	$388.41 million	39,750	33,735	News Coverage Positive News
ASLE AerSale	$12.70 -1.2%	0.30	141.06	$651.62 million	662,759	517,786	Short Interest ↑
CTRA Coterra Energy	$25.52 -0.5%	0.30	8.77	$19.20 billion	4.08 million	6.44 million	Short Interest ↑
BAFN BayFirst Financial	$13.05 +0.4%	0.30	11.86	$53.62 million	4,436	4,704	Short Interest ↑ News Coverage
STNG Scorpio Tankers	$60.80 0.0%	0.30	5.08	$3.23 billion	928,340	987,705

STCN Steel Connect	$9.64 -0.9%	0.30	15.37	$60.38 million	3,387	4,650	Short Interest ↑ Gap Down
SWKH SWK	$17.53 -0.1%	0.30	14.02	$219.18 million	7,785	9,225	Positive News
VIRT Virtu Financial	$20.26 -0.6%	0.30	12.51	$3.22 billion	472,727	907,395	News Coverage
RGR Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.	$45.45 -0.7%	0.31	14.20	$805.51 million	117,759	154,232	Positive News
RNR RenaissanceRe	$196.00 +0.6%	0.31	6.31	$10.03 billion	345,619	512,743	Short Interest ↑ Positive News
ESMT EngageSmart	$22.90	0.31	152.67	$3.85 billion	467,476	807,616	Short Interest ↑ News Coverage
FGBI First Guaranty Bancshares	$11.12	0.31	11.35	$127.11 million	3,479	11,404	Short Interest ↑ Analyst Revision News Coverage
UBCP United Bancorp	$12.84 -1.3%	0.31	8.28	$73.40 million	4,514	8,777	Short Interest ↑
BFC Bank First	$86.66 -1.9%	0.32	16.29	$898.32 million	16,656	33,824	Ex-Dividend News Coverage
BJ BJ's Wholesale Club	$66.66 -0.6%	0.32	17.82	$8.89 billion	921,915	1.27 million	Short Interest ↓ 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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