Danaher designs, manufactures and markets medical, industrial and commercial products and services. Co.'s segments are: Life Sciences, which provides instruments to study genes, proteins, metabolites and cells, in order to understand the causes of disease, identify therapies, and test drugs and vaccines; Diagnostics, which provides clinical instruments, reagents, consumables, software and services that hospitals, physicians' offices, reference laboratories and other critical care settings use to diagnose disease and make treatment decisions; and Environmental and Applied Solutions, which provides products and services that help protect resources and keep global food and water supplies safe.
When researching a stock like Danaher, 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 DHR 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 DHR 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 DHR 200 day moving average ("DHR 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the DHR 50 day moving average ("DHR 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for Danaher. Comparing two moving averages against each other can be a useful visualization tool: by calculating the difference between the DHR 200 DMA and the DHR 50 DMA, we get a moving average convergence divergence indicator ("DHR MACD"). The DHR 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). |