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Should You Be Concerned About Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.'s (NASDAQ:BBBY) Historical Volatility?

If you own shares in Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) then it's worth thinking about how it contributes to the volatility of your portfolio, overall. In finance, Beta is a measure of volatility. 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 sort is caused by the natural volatility of markets, overall. For example, certain macroeconomic events will impact (virtually) all stocks on the market.

Some stocks mimic the volatility of the market quite closely, while others demonstrate muted, exagerrated or uncorrelated price movements. 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. Any stock with a beta of greater than one is considered more volatile than the market, while those with a beta below one are either less volatile or poorly correlated with the market.

View our latest analysis for Bed Bath & Beyond

What BBBY's beta value tells investors

Looking at the last five years, Bed Bath & Beyond has a beta of 1.30. The fact that this is well above 1 indicates that its share price movements have shown sensitivity to overall market volatility. If the past is any guide, we would expect that Bed Bath & Beyond shares will rise quicker than the markets in times of optimism, but fall faster in times of pessimism. Many would argue that beta is useful in position sizing, but fundamental metrics such as revenue and earnings are more important overall. You can see Bed Bath & Beyond's revenue and earnings in the image below.

NasdaqGS:BBBY Income Statement, November 9th 2019
NasdaqGS:BBBY Income Statement, November 9th 2019

How does BBBY's size impact its beta?

Bed Bath & Beyond is a small cap stock with a market capitalisation of US$1.7b. Most companies this size are actively traded. It's not particularly surprising that it has a higher beta than the overall market. That's because it takes less money to influence the share price of a smaller company, than a bigger company.

What this means for you:

Since Bed Bath & Beyond 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. In order to fully understand whether BBBY is a good investment for you, we also need to consider important company-specific fundamentals such as Bed Bath & Beyond’s financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following:

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  1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for BBBY’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for BBBY’s outlook.

  2. Past Track Record: Has BBBY been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of BBBY's historicals for more clarity.

  3. Other Interesting Stocks: It's worth checking to see how BBBY measures up against other companies on valuation. You could start with this free list of prospective options.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.