The Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) share price has long lived in the shadows of its larger ASX banking brethren. The big 4 banks like Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) seem to hold larger sway over the average ASX investors' psyche than Macquarie does. Even so, Macquarie is still widely known as the ASX's 'fifth bank'.
And it has certainly earned that reputation over the past month or so.
Macquarie has had a banging 4 weeks. Not only has the Macquarie share price appreciated by a very healthy 7.3% over the past month but it has also clocked yet another new all-time high just this morning. Yep, Macquarie shares hit a share price of $170.65 just an hour or so ago.
That performance has smashed those of the other major ASX banks over the past month. Want proof? Let's dig into it.
How has the Macquarie share price fared against the big 4 ASX banks?
So Commonwealth Bank shares have actually gone backwards over the past month. This leading ASX bank was trading at a share price of roughly $105 a share this time last month. But today, it's presently fetching $101.92 a share.
Westpac? It's up over the past month, but not nearly as much as Macquaire. Westpac shares were asking around $25.36 a month ago and are trading for $25.92 at the time of writing. That's a difference of around 2.2%.
Let's turn to National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB). NAB shares have fared a lot better than the other 2 ASX banks above. NAB has spent the past 4 weeks rising from just under $27 a share to today's price of $28.54.
Just like Macquarie, NAB has also notched a new high of its own today, hitting a new 52-week high of $28.88 a share earlier this morning. Even so, NAB's gains over the past month are sitting at 6.35%. Almost as good as Macquaire's, but no cigar.
And, finally, we have Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ). Like CBA, ANZ shares have gone backwards over the past month. This (smaller) ASX bank was asking for around $28.90 a share a month ago. Today's it's currently trading at a share price of $28.01. That's a slide of roughly 3.07% over the month just gone.
So, as you can see, Macquaire is the pick of the ASX banking shares bunch over the past month. NAB got close with its 6.35% gain. But even that healthy number doesn't best Macquarie's 7.3% performance.
At the current Macquarie Group share price, the ASX's 'fifth bank' has a market capitalisation of $62.83 billion, a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 20.66 and a dividend yield of 2.76%.
