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If you are looking to invest in Technical Communications Corporation’s (NASDAQ:TCCO), or currently own the stock, then you need to understand its beta in order to understand how it can affect the risk of your portfolio. The beta measures TCCO’s exposure to the wider market risk, which reflects changes in economic and political factors. Not every stock is exposed to the same level of market risk, and the market as a whole represents a beta value of one. Any stock with a beta of greater than one is considered more volatile than the market, and those with a beta less than one is generally less volatile.
View our latest analysis for Technical Communications
What is TCCO’s market risk?
Technical Communications has a beta of 1.06, which means that the percentage change in its stock value will be higher than the entire market in times of booms and busts. A high level of beta means investors face higher risk associated with potential gains and losses driven by market movements. Based on this beta value, TCCO will help diversify your portfolio, if it currently comprises of low-beta stocks. This will be beneficial for portfolio returns, in particular, when current market sentiment is positive.
How does TCCO’s size and industry impact its risk?
With a market cap of US$8.14M, TCCO falls within the small-cap spectrum of stocks, which are found to experience higher relative risk compared to larger companies. Furthermore, the company operates in the communications industry, which has been found to have high sensitivity to market-wide shocks. So, investors should expect a larger beta for smaller companies operating in a cyclical industry in contrast with lower beta for larger firms in a more defensive industry. This is consistent with TCCO’s individual beta value we discussed above. Fundamental factors can also drive the cyclicality of the stock, which we will take a look at next.
How TCCO’s assets could affect its 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 TCCO’s ratio of fixed assets to total assets to see whether the company is highly exposed to the risk of this type of constraint. With a fixed-assets-to-total-assets ratio of greater than 30%, TCCO appears to be a company that invests a large amount of capital in assets that are hard to scale down on short-notice. As a result, this aspect of TCCO indicates a higher beta than a similar size company with a lower portion of fixed assets on their balance sheet. Similarly, TCCO’s beta value conveys the same message.