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What Kind Of Share Price Volatility Should You Expect For ScanSource, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCSC)?

If you're interested in ScanSource, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCSC), 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 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 see their prices move in concert with the market. Others tend towards stronger, gentler or unrelated price movements. 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. 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.

Check out our latest analysis for ScanSource

What we can learn from SCSC's beta value

Looking at the last five years, ScanSource has a beta of 1.32. The fact that this is well above 1 indicates that its share price movements have shown sensitivity to overall market volatility. Based on this history, investors should be aware that ScanSource 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 ScanSource fares in that regard, below.

NasdaqGS:SCSC Income Statement May 25th 2020
NasdaqGS:SCSC Income Statement May 25th 2020

Does SCSC's size influence the expected beta?

ScanSource is a small company, but not tiny and little known. It has a market capitalisation of US$603m, which means it would be on the radar of intstitutional investors. It is quite common to see a small-cap stock with a beta greater than one. In part, that's because relatively few investors can influence the price of a smaller company, compared to a large company.

What this means for you:

Since ScanSource tends to move 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 SCSC is a good investment for you, we also need to consider important company-specific fundamentals such as ScanSource’s financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following:

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

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

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

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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. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.