ASX:GED Income Statement Oct 2nd 17
Can GED's asset-composition point to a higher beta?
An asset-heavy company tends to have a higher beta because the risk associated with running fixed assets during a downturn is highly expensive. I test GED’s ratio of fixed assets to total assets in order to determine how high the risk is associated with this type of constraint. GED's fixed assets to total assets ratio of higher than 30% shows that the company uses up a big chunk of its capital on assets that are hard to scale up or down in short notice. Thus, we can expect GED to be more volatile in the face of market movements, relative to its peers of similar size but with a lower proportion of fixed assets on their books. This outcome contradicts GED’s current beta value which indicates a below-average volatility.
What this means for you:
Are you a shareholder? GED may be a worthwhile stock to hold onto in order to cushion the impact of a downturn. Depending on the composition of your portfolio, low-beta stocks such as GED is valuable to lower your risk of market exposure, in particular, during times of economic decline.
Are you a potential investor? Depending on the composition of your portfolio, GED may be a valuable addition to cushion the impact of a downturn. Potential investors should look into its fundamental factors such as its current valuation and financial health. Take into account your portfolio sensitivity to the market before you invest in GED, as well as where we are in the current economic cycle.
Beta is one aspect of your portfolio construction to consider when holding or entering into a stock. But it is certainly not the only factor. Take a look at our most recent infographic report on Golden Deeps for a more in-depth analysis of the stock to help you make a well-informed investment decision. But if you are not interested in Golden Deeps anymore, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.
To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.