Anyone researching China e-Wallet Payment Group Limited (

HKG:802

) might want to consider the historical volatility of the share price. Volatility is how often should you bathe a cat with fleasconsidered 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 type is the broader market volatility, which you cannot diversify away, since it arises from macroeconomic factors which directly affects all the stocks on the market.

Some stocks see their prices move in concert with the market. Others tend towards stronger, gentler or unrelated price movements. Beta can be a useful tool to understand how much a stock is influenced by market risk (volatility). However, Warren Buffett said ‘volatility is far from synonymous with risk’ in his 2014 letter to investors. So, while useful, beta is not the only metric to consider. To use beta as an investor, you must first understand that the overall market has a beta of 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.

View our latest analysis for China e-Wallet Payment Group

What does 802’s beta value mean to investors?

Given that it has a beta of 1.37, we can surmise that the China e-Wallet Payment Group share price has been fairly sensitive to market volatility (over the last 5 years). If the past is any guide, we would expect that China e-Wallet Payment Group 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 China e-Wallet Payment Group’s revenue and earnings in the image below.

SEHK:802 Income Statement Export January 2nd 19

Does 802’s size influence the expected beta?

China e-Wallet Payment Group is a rather small company. It has a market capitalisation of HK$519m, which means it is probably under the radar of most investors. Relatively few investors can influence the price of a smaller company, compared to a large company. This could explain the high beta value, in this case.

What this means for you:

Since China e-Wallet Payment Group 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. This article aims to educate investors about beta values, but it’s well worth looking at important company-specific fundamentals such as China e-Wallet Payment Group’s financial health and performance track record. I urge you to continue your research by taking a look at the following:

Story continues

Financial Health

: Are 802’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out our

financial health checks here

.

Past Track Record

: Has 802 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 802’s historicals

for more clarity.

Other High-Performing Stocks

: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our

free list of these great stocks here

.

To help readers see past 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. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at

[email protected]

.

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