First Republic Bank is a commercial bank and trust company. Co. provides private banking, private business banking and private wealth management. Co. conducts its business through two segments: Commercial Banking and Wealth Management. The principal business activities of the Commercial Banking segment include gathering deposits, originating and servicing loans and investing in investment securities. The principal business activities of the Wealth Management segment include the investment management activities of Co.'s subsidiary, First Republic Investment Management, Inc., which manages investments for individuals and institutions.
When researching a stock like First Republic Bank, 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 FRC 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 FRC 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 FRC 200 day moving average ("FRC 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the FRC 50 day moving average ("FRC 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for First Republic Bank. Comparing two moving averages against each other can be a useful visualization tool: by calculating the difference between the FRC 200 DMA and the FRC 50 DMA, we get a moving average convergence divergence indicator ("FRC MACD"). The FRC 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). |