U.S. Bancorp is a financial services holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Co. provides a range of financial services, including lending and depository services, cash management, capital markets, and trust and investment management services. Co. also engages in credit card services, merchant and ATM processing, mortgage banking, insurance, brokerage and leasing. Co.'s banking subsidiary, U.S. Bank National Association, is engaged in the general banking business, principally in domestic markets. Co.'s bank and trust subsidiaries provide a range of asset management and fiduciary services for individuals, estates, foundations, business corporations and charitable organizations.
When researching a stock like US Bancorp, 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 USB 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 USB 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 USB 200 day moving average ("USB 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the USB 50 day moving average ("USB 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for US Bancorp. Comparing two moving averages against each other can be a useful visualization tool: by calculating the difference between the USB 200 DMA and the USB 50 DMA, we get a moving average convergence divergence indicator ("USB MACD"). The USB 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). |