TSXV:GBE Income Statement Dec 14th 17
Is GBE’s cost structure indicative of a high 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 examine GBE’s ratio of fixed assets to total assets to see whether the company is highly exposed to the risk of this type of constraint. Given a fixed to total assets ratio of over 30%, GBE seems to be a company which invests a big chunk of its capital on assets that cannot be scaled down on short-notice. As a result, this aspect of GBE indicates a higher beta than a similar size company with a lower portion of fixed assets on their balance sheet. Similarly, GBE’s beta value conveys the same message.
What this means for you:
Are you a shareholder? You could benefit from higher returns from GBE during times of economic growth. Its higher fixed cost isn’t a major concern given margins are covered with high consumer demand. However, in times of a downturn, it may be safe to look at a more defensive stock which can cushion the impact of lower demand. For next steps, take a look at GBE’s outlook to see what analysts are expecting for the stock on our free analysis plaform here.
Are you a potential investor? Before you buy GBE, you should factor how your portfolio currently moves with the wider market, and where we are in the economic cycle. This stock could be an outperformer during times of growth, and it may be worth taking a deeper dive into the fundamentals to crystalize your thoughts on GBE. You can examine these factors in our free fundamental research report for GBE here.
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.