The Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX: BEN) share price is having a pretty decent start to this Tuesday's trading today. At the time of writing, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank shares are up a healthy 0.56% to $10.76 a share.
That puts this ASX bank's 2021 gains so far at 13.86% year to date. It's also up by a very pleasing 56.85% over the past 12 months, but a far more modest 2.57% over the past 5 years.
Wondering how that compares to the other ASX banks? Well, not quite as well as some. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) is presently up 26.3% year to date in 2021 so far, 43% over the past 12 months and 39% over the past 5 years.
But Bendigo Bank has certainly outperformed others. National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) is up 17.77% year to date, 54.67% over the past 12 months and just 0.2% over the past 5 years.
Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) is up 30% year to date, 47.4% over the past year and has actually gone backwards by a hefty 13.8% over the past 5 years.
So with Bendigo Bank reporting its FY2021 earnings next Monday, many ASX investors might be wondering today if now is a good time to buy Bendigo and Adelaide Bank shares?
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Are Bendigo Bank shares a buy today?
Well, one broker who thinks it might be a good time to keep one's powder dry with Bendigo Bank right now is investment bank Goldman Sachs. Goldman currently rates Bendigo Bank shares as 'neutral' with a 12-month share price target of $10.75 a share.
You might notice that this is very similar to Bendigo Bank's current share price — implying not too much in the way of potential upside (aside from dividend returns) over the next 12 months.
Goldman is lukewarm on Bendigo partly because the bank "has historically underperformed on costs" which, Goldman points out, have grown at a much faster rate than other ASX banks over the past few years.
Goldman also expects Bendigo to grow its earnings per share (EPS) at a modest rate over the next few years, forecasting EPS to rise from 71 cents per share in FY21 to 80 cents per share by FY2023.
It also expects Bendigo's annual dividend to rise from 50 cents per share for FY21 to 60 cents per share by FY2023.
At the current Bendigo and Adelaide Bank share price, the company has a market capitalisation of $5.88 billion, a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 22.9 and a trailing dividend yield of 2.6%.
