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Does The Mercury Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRCY) Share Price Fall With The Market?

If you're interested in Mercury Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRCY), 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. Volatility is considered to be a measure of risk in modern finance theory. Investors may think of volatility as falling into two main categories. The first category is company specific volatility. This can be dealt with by limiting your exposure to any particular stock. 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 are more sensitive to general market forces than others. Beta is a widely used metric to measure a stock's exposure to market risk (volatility). Before we go on, it's worth noting that Warren Buffett pointed out in his 2014 letter to shareholders that 'volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' Having said that, beta can still be rather useful. The first thing to understand about beta is that the beta of the overall market is one. A stock with a beta greater than one is more sensitive to broader market movements than a stock with a beta of less than one.

Check out our latest analysis for Mercury Systems

What MRCY's beta value tells investors

Given that it has a beta of 1.09, we can surmise that the Mercury Systems share price has been fairly sensitive to market volatility (over the last 5 years). Based on this history, investors should be aware that Mercury Systems are likely to rise strongly in times of greed, but sell off in times of fear. 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 Mercury Systems fares in that regard, below.

NasdaqGS:MRCY Income Statement, September 2nd 2019
NasdaqGS:MRCY Income Statement, September 2nd 2019

Does MRCY's size influence the expected beta?

With a market capitalisation of US$4.7b, Mercury Systems is a pretty big company, even by global standards. It is quite likely well known to very many investors. It takes a lot of money to influence the share price of large companies like this one. That makes it interesting to note that its share price has a history of sensitivity to market volatility. There might be some aspect of the business that means profits are leveraged to the economic cycle.

What this means for you:

Since Mercury Systems tends to moves up when the market is going up, and down when it's going down, potential investors may wish to reflect on the overall market, when considering the stock. In order to fully understand whether MRCY is a good investment for you, we also need to consider important company-specific fundamentals such as Mercury Systems’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 MRCY’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for MRCY’s outlook.

  2. Past Track Record: Has MRCY 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 MRCY's historicals for more clarity.

  3. Other Interesting Stocks: It's worth checking to see how MRCY 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.