The National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) share price is bouncing around today. At one point, it was up, at another, down. At the time of writing, NAB shares are trading at $25.90. That's down more than 2% from where it was trading yesterday at close. But as my Fool colleague James Mickleboro pointed out this morning, this probably has more to do with NAB shares trading ex-dividend this morning than anything else. Shareholders will be receiving NAB's 60 cents per share, fully franked, on 2 July. Well, shareholders who owned NAB shares yesterday or earlier. Any late entrants today will have to wait for the next dividend. Hence the share price drop.
But this ex-dividend dip could mask some deeper weakness in the NAB share price. Just last week, the ASX bank was hitting a new 52-week high of $27.84, the highest level NAB shares have traversed since late 2019. Investors were initially buoyed by the bank's half-year earnings report that was released a week ago. And fair enough too. This report detailed a 94.8% increase in cash earnings for the bank to $3.34 billion, with rises spread across all divisions. NAB also doubled its dividend. All of the other major banks have also recently reported well-received earnings (or quarterly updates), with the possible exception of Australia and New Zealand Banking GrpLtd (ASX: ANZ). But all of this has seemingly been forgotten. On today's pricing, NAB is now down around 5.3% from its high from last Wednesday
But perhaps this dip is a buying opportunity for NAB. After all, lower share prices are cheaper share prices. And NAB is still a long way from its glory days. Remember, back in 2015 this bank was a $37, $38 share. And way back in 2007, NAB saw upwards of $42 at one point.
Is the NAB share price a buy today?
Well, one commentator who does indeed see some further upside for NAB is Goldman Sachs. According to CommSec, Goldman still has a 'buy' rating on NAB after its earnings report, with a price target of $29.97. That implies an upside of more than 15% on the current price, as well as some dividend returns on top. Goldman likes the look of NAB's cost management initiatives, its dominance of the business banking market, and its well-capitalised capital base.
