Which of the following statements is correct?
A) Collections Inc. is in the business of collecting past-due accounts for other companies, i.e., it is a collection agency. Collections' revenues, profits, and stock price tend to rise during recessions. This suggests that Collections Inc.'s beta should be quite high, say 2.0, because it does so much better than most other companies when the economy is weak.
B) Suppose the returns on two stocks are negatively correlated. One has a beta of 1.2 as determined in a regression analysis using data for the last 5 years, while the other has a beta of -0.6. The returns on the stock with the negative beta will be negatively correlated with returns on most other stocks in the market during that 5-year period.
C) Suppose you are managing a stock portfolio, and you have information that leads you to believe the stock market is likely to be very strong in the immediate future. That is, you are convinced that the market is about to rise sharply. You should sell your high-beta
Stocks and buy low-beta stocks in order to take advantage of the expected market move.
D) You think that investor sentiment is about to change, and investors are about to become more risk averse. This suggests that you should rebalance your portfolio to include more high-beta stocks.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The statement in option B correctly explains the concept of negative correlation and beta. The statement in option A is incorrect as high beta does not necessarily imply better performance during recessions. Option C is incorrect as investors typically sell low-beta stocks and buy high-beta stocks during market upswings. Option D is also incorrect as during times of increased risk aversion, investors typically prefer low-beta stocks.

Which of the Following Statements Is Correct