The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) enjoyed a month of tentative gains over Febraury, as it turns out. Fresh from January’s disappointing returns, February saw the ASX 200 gain 1.1% for the month. Unfortunately, the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price wasn’t so lucky.
ANZ shares spent February going backwards. This ASX 200 big four banking share began the month that was at $26.53 a share, but finished it up this week at $26.01. That’s a loss of 1.96%. And an underperformance of more than 3%. Ouch.
But perhaps more disappointingly for investors, ANZ was also one of the worst performing ASX bank shares over February.
The worst-performing ASX 200 bank share?
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares lost 0.3% of their value over last month. So not quite as bad as ANZ.
But National Australia Bank Ltd. (ASX: NAB) had a corker, rising 6.67% over the same period.
Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) really came out on top though. As my Fool colleague Brooke dug into this morning, Westpac ended up giving investors a very pleasing 12.3% gain over February.
So why were investors leaving ANZ shares in the relative dust?
Well, it might come down to a lack of exciting news for the bank. Take a comparison to Westpac, for instance. Westpac seemed to excite investors with the completion of a $2.5 billion on-market share buyback program mid-month. It also dropped a set of quarterly results, which saw investors push up Westpac shares at the time.
Something similar happened with NAB.
But although ANZ released its own quarterly update on 10 February, it doesn’t seem to have had the same kind of wow factor.
Another issue at play could be the falling owner-occupied mortgage market share issues that my Fool colleague Tony dug into last month.
So after ANZ’s lacklustre February, could this ASX bank share be in the buy zone today?
Are ANZ shares a buy today?
Well, one broker who thinks they might be is Goldman Sachs. Last month, Goldman kept its buy rating on ANZ intact, complete with a revised 12-month share price target of $30.84 a share (down from $31.82). That still implies a potential upside of more than 19% over the coming year.
The broker reckons the softness that the bank is currently experiencing is “contained”. Further, Goldman notes that ANZ is “making progress to improve systems and processes for simple home loans”.
At the current ANZ share price, this ASX 200 bank share has a market capitalisation of $72.58 billion, with a dividend yield of 5.5%.
The post Why did the ANZ (ASX:ANZ) share price lag the other banks in February appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.
Should you invest $1,000 in ANZ right now?
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Motley Fool Investing expert Scott Phillips just revealed what he believes are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and ANZ wasn’t one of them.
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More reading
- Own ANZ shares? Here’s the bank’s latest move to ‘better prepare for future growth’
- Greater Certainty: Why this top broker is bullish on ANZ (ASX:ANZ) shares in 2022
- Bad ATM? The ANZ share price was hammered more than any other ASX 200 bank today
- Should you be buying ASX 200 bank shares in February?
- Why ANZ (ASX:ANZ) shares have been punished, but experts are now bullish
Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen owns National Australia Bank Limited. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Westpac Banking Corporation. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.
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