For his second "Executive Decision" segment of Wednesday's Mad Money program, host Jim Cramer spoke with Marc Casper, chairman, president and CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) , the tools and diagnostics provider for the life sciences industry.
Casper said that Thermo Fisher had a spectacular year in 2021 and grew over 20%, including the largest acquisition in the company's history.
When asked what our country needs to get past this pandemic and get ahead of the next one, Casper said America needs a holistic approach that includes surveillance and sequencing to quickly identify threats.
It needs diagnostics and testing to prevent the spread. And it needs most therapeutics that can treat patients and lower anxiety levels. Fortunately, Thermo Fisher is well positioned to assist in all of these areas and even has the capacity to help manufacture vaccines as well.
Casper noted that Thermo Fisher should not be thought of as just a pandemic company, however. The first thing it did with the pandemic windfall was dramatically increase investments outside of vaccines and testing.
Let's check on the charts and indicators.
In our Oct. 28 review of TMO we wrote: "Continue to hold longs from June but raise stops to $560 now. The $739 area is our next upside price objective." Prices stopped short of our price target and quickly turned lower last month to hit our recommended stop at $560.
In the updated daily bar chart of TMO, below, we can see that prices broke below the 50-day moving average line and then declined further to test the 200-day line last month. Prices have rebounded a bit in recent days and the On-Balance-Volume (OBV) line shows only a small improvement.
The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) oscillator crossed to the upside for a cover shorts buy signal.
In the weekly Japanese candlestick chart of TMO, below, we can see a recent hammer bottom formation or pattern with bullish confirmation. Prices bounced off the rising 40-week moving average line.
The weekly OBV line tracked prices higher the past three years but shows a decline from December till now. The MACD oscillator has crossed to the downside for a take profit sell signal.
In this daily Point and Figure chart of TMO, below, we still see an upside price target.
This weekly Point and Figure chart of TMO, below, now shows us a downside price target in the $412 area.
Bottom-line strategy: The overall view of the TMO charts is mixed but with the weakness in the broader market averages a cautious approach is warranted now that we were stopped out. Avoid the long side for now.
