WH Smith (LSE:SMWH) Beta: 1.4456 (As of Jun. 25, 2026)

WH Smith  (LSE:SMWH) Beta Explanation

Beta is a measure of the volatility, or systematic risk, of a security or a portfolio in comparison to the market as a whole. We usually compare beta to 1. A beta of 1 indicates that the security's price will move with the market. A beta of less than 1 means that the security will be less volatile than the market. A beta of greater than 1 indicates that the security's price will be more volatile than the market.

Beta is primarily used in the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) to calculate the Cost of Equity, which can be used in the calculation of WACC %. The formula of Cost of Equity is:
Cost of Equity = Risk-Free Rate of Return + Beta of Asset * (Expected Return of the Market - Risk-Free Rate of Return)

WH Smith Beta Related Terms

The historical data trend for WH Smith's Beta can be seen below:

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

WH Smith Beta Chart

WH Smith Annual Data
	Trend	Aug16	Aug17	Aug18	Aug19	Aug20	Aug21	Aug22	Aug23	Aug24	Aug25
Beta		Get a 7-Day Free Trial					0.00	0.00	0.00	1.79	1.63

WH Smith Semi-Annual Data
	Aug16	Feb17	Aug17	Feb18	Aug18	Feb19	Aug19	Feb20	Aug20	Feb21	Aug21	Feb22	Aug22	Feb23	Aug23	Feb24	Aug24	Feb25	Aug25	Feb26
Beta	Get a 7-Day Free Trial															1.63	1.79	1.55	1.63	1.13

LSE:SMWH vs CASY, WSM, ULTA: Beta Comparison

For the Specialty Retail subindustry, WH Smith's Beta, along with its competitors' market caps and Beta data, can be viewed below:

* Competitive companies are chosen from companies within the same industry, with headquarter located in same country, with closest market capitalization; x-axis shows the market cap, and y-axis shows the term value; the bigger the dot, the larger the market cap. Note that "N/A" values will not show up in the chart.

WH Smith Beta vs Retail - Cyclical Industry

For the Retail - Cyclical industry and Consumer Cyclical sector, WH Smith's Beta distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where WH Smith's Beta falls into.

WH Smith Beta Calculation

Beta is the sensitivity of the expected excess asset returns to the expected excess market returns. A stock's beta can be calculated by dividing the product of the covariance of the individual stock's returns and the market's returns by the variance of the market's returns over a specified period. Basically, GuruFocus uses the returns calculated over three-year period.

WH Smith Business Description