The Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) share price has been on the move in December.
When looking at the past month, the conglomerate's shares have gained around 5.1%. By compassion, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has lifted by roughly 3.3% over the same time frame.
Below, we take a closer look at what's been happening with the Wesfarmers share price.
What's up with Wesfarmers?
Investors have been buying up on Wesfarmers shares as the company battles out with Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) for Australian Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ASX: API).
Wesfarmers' biggest competitor, Woolworths tabled a cash offer price of $1.75 per API share by way of a scheme of arrangement. This translates to a total equity value of $872 million.
Notably, the proposed offer price represents a premium of 20 cents per share or 12.9% over the price agreed between API and Wesfarmers on 8 November 2021.
However, Wesfarmers owns a 19.3% stake in API, and will undoubtedly reject any scheme of arrangement between Woolworths and API.
In addition, the company has been busy navigating its way through COVID-19.
Wesfarmers reported tough trading conditions at its annual general meeting (AGM) held in late October.
In particular, the company stated that some of its businesses such as Bunnings, K-mart and Target were impacted by store closures. Although, strong online sales managed to offset the loss of potential revenue.
On the other hand, Officeworks thrived as customer demand for technology and office furniture accelerated. This was attributed to more people working from home due to government-mandated restrictions.
The Wesfarmers chemicals, energy and fertilisers division continued to grow on the back of ammonium nitrate and favourable LPG pricing.
Although, a possible driving force behind the Wesfarmers share price could be from a broker update.
American multinational investment bank, JPMorgan upgraded its outlook on Wesfarmers shares to "overweight" from a "neutral" position.
Its analysts raised the price target by a sizeable 21% to $64 per share. Based on yesterday's closing price of $59.94, this implies an upside of about 6.5%.
Wesfarmers share price snapshot
Since the beginning of the year, the Wesfarmers share price has gained almost 20%, surging past pre-pandemic levels. The company's shares reached a record high of $67.20 in August before treading lower in the couple of months ahead.
Wesfarmers commands a market capitalisation of around $67.96 billion, making it the 8th largest company on the ASX.
