Allergan is a pharmaceutical company focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing pharmaceutical, device, biologic, surgical and regenerative medicine products for patients around the world. Co. has three segments: United States Specialized Therapeutics, which includes products within the United States, including Medical Aesthetics, Medical Dermatology Eye Care and Neuroscience and Urology therapeutic products; United States General Medicine, which includes products within the United States that do not fall into the United States Specialized Therapeutics business units, including Central Nervous System; and International, which includes products sold outside the United States.
When researching a stock like Allergan, many investors are the most familiar with Fundamental Analysis — looking at a company's balance sheet, earnings, revenues, and what's happening in that company's underlying business. Investors who use Fundamental Analysis to identify good stocks to buy or sell can also benefit from AGN Technical Analysis to help find a good entry or exit point. Technical Analysis is blind to the fundamentals and looks only at the trading data for AGN stock — the real life supply and demand for the stock over time — and examines that data in different ways. One of those ways is to calculate a Simpe Moving Average ("SMA") by looking back a certain number of days. One of the most popular "longer look-backs" is the AGN 200 day moving average ("AGN 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the AGN 50 day moving average ("AGN 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for Allergan. Comparing two moving averages against each other can be a useful visualization tool: by calculating the difference between the AGN 200 DMA and the AGN 50 DMA, we get a moving average convergence divergence indicator ("AGN MACD"). The AGN MACD chart, in conjunction with the chart of the moving averages, basically helps in visualizing how the moving averages are showing convergence (moving closer together), or divergence (moving farther apart). |