How is the Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price faring in this month of August so far?
Good question. With earnings season accelerating in the week that's just passed us by, it's a great time to gauge the entire S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), of which, of course, Westpac is a major top-5 constituent.
The ASX 200 has had a bumpy month so far, but is still up roughly 1.3% at the time of writing.
So how has Westpac done?
Well, this ASX banking share started the month at $24.52 a share. As of Friday's close, the bank was trading at a share price of $25.99. That means Westpac shares have given investors a return of roughly 6% for the month so far.
Let's see how this compares with Westpac's ASX banking brethren.
How does the Westpac share price measure up to the other ASX banks in August?
Well, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) has had a rather interesting August. As of current pricing, CBA shares are up a decent 1.9% over August so far, rising from $99.65 a share at the start of the month to Friday's closing price of $101.54 a share.
But in the meantime, CBA did rise to a new all-time high of $109.03 shortly after it released its FY21 earnings report on 11 August. Although investors obviously sent CBA through the roof at the time, the shares are now down more than 6% from those highs.
Turning to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ), and we get a similar story to CBA.
ANZ started the month at $27.71 a share and closed at $28.32 on Friday – representing a total gain of 2.2% for August so far. ANZ also got a meaningful boost when CBA reported its numbers, rising to a new 52-week high of $29.64 on 13 August. However, the shares have cooled off since, and remain down more than 4% from those highs.
NAB shares come out on top for August so far
And finally, we have National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB). NAB shares have performed similarly to Westpac over August so far, experiencing no pullback in the weeks since CBA reported its earnings.
NAB started the month at $25.92 a share and ended up on Friday at $27.64. That puts its August gains at 6.6% so far for August. That puts NAB on top of the ASX banks and makes it the best performing major bank over August so far, just pipping Westpac's 6%.
Even so, Westpac shareholders should be happy with their returns over the month to date, seeing as they still meaningfully outperform the ASX 200 over the same time.
At Westpac's last share price, the company has a market capitalisation of $95.42 billion, a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 22.24 and a dividend yield of 3.42%.
