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what could be the reasons for a company's beta to be less than 1?
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Beta measures how strongly correlated a company is with the rest of the market. A beta of 1 means the company moves exactly in line with the market - if the market goes up 1%, the company goes up 1%, if the market goes down 1%, the company goes down 1%. A beta of between 0 and 1 means the company moves in the same direction as the market, but not as much. A beta of more than 1 means it moves more than the market. A beta of zero means it is completely independent of the market and a negative beta means it moves in the opposite direction to the market.
Each company will also have its own movements that have nothing to do with the market, but if you have a well diversified portfolio you can ignore those because they will cancel out.
Investing in a companies with a beta less than 1 is useful if you think the market will go down, since such companies will outperform a falling market (because they will fall less or, if the beta is negative, climb). That's why you hear them called "defensive".
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