If youre interested in Asure Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASUR), 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. Modern finance theory considers volatility to be a measure of risk, and there are two main types of price volatility. The first type is company specific volatility. Investors use diversification across uncorrelated stocks to reduce this kind of price volatility across the portfolio. The other type, which cannot be diversified away, is the volatility of the entire market. Every stock in the market is exposed to this volatility, which is linked to the fact that stocks prices are correlated in an efficient market.

Some stocks mimic the volatility of the market quite closely, while others demonstrate muted, exagerrated or uncorrelated price movements. Beta is a widely used metric to measure a stocks exposure to market risk (volatility). Before we go on, its 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 below one is either less volatile than the market, or more volatile but not corellated with the overall market. In comparison a stock with a beta of over one tends to be move in a similar direction to the market in the long term, but with greater changes in price.

Check out our latest analysis for Asure Software

Given that it has a beta of 1.26, we can surmise that the Asure Software share price has been fairly sensitive to market volatility (over the last 5 years). If this beta value holds true in the future, Asure Software shares are likely to rise more than the market when the market is going up, but fall faster when the market is going down. Beta is worth considering, but its also important to consider whether Asure Software is growing earnings and revenue. You can take a look for yourself, below.

Asure Software is a rather small company. It has a market capitalisation of US$132m, which means it is probably under the radar of most investors. It has a relatively high beta, suggesting it is fairly actively traded for a company of its size. Because it takes less capital to move the share price of a small company like this, when a stock this size is actively traded it is quite often more sensitive to market volatility than similar large companies.

Since Asure Software tends to moves up when the market is going up, and down when its going down, potential investors may wish to reflect on the overall market, when considering the stock. This article aims to educate investors about beta values, but its well worth looking at important company-specific fundamentals such as Asure Softwares financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following:

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.

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. Thank you for reading.

Read more from the original source:
How Does Investing In Asure Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASUR) Impact The Volatility Of Your Portfolio? - Simply Wall St