The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) had an extremely volatile start to 2022. Over the three months ending 31 March, the ASX 200 seesawed around but still managed to eke out a modest gain of 0.7%. But let's dig deeper into one of ASX's most prominent blue-chip shares, Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS).
Telstra is of course the giant telecommunications company that dominates both mobile and fixed-line communication services here in Australia. It has recently gained attention for its portfolio of valuable infrastructure assets, such as towers and cabling. As well as its expanding international portfolio of assets.
So how did Telstra fare in the March quarter?
Well the ASX 200 telco started the year at a share price of $4.18. But by the end of March, Telstra shares had fallen to $3.96. That's a rather hefty drop of 5.26%.
Telstra did trade ex-dividend during this period though. So even though investors received the company's interim dividend one day after the quarter ended (on 1 April), we could still include this in Telstra's returns. Since its 8 cents per share payment was worth a yield of roughly 2%, that blunts Telstra's disappointing performance over the March quarter.
But even so, it was still a market-trailing performance from this telco over the three months to 31 March.
Is the Telstra share price a buy today?
So what's next for this company? After this lacklustre performance over the first few months of 2022, could the Telstra share price be a buy today?
Well, one broker who thinks so is Morgans. As we covered earlier this month, Morgans has recently reaffirmed an add rating on the Telstra share price, replete with a 12-month share price target of $4.55. That implies a potential upside over the next year of almost 14%.
Morgans reckons the Telstra share price is currently undervalued and anticipates the telco will keep its current annual dividend of 16 cents per share in place for at least the next year or two.
No doubt shareholders will be happy to accept that assessment.
At the latest Telstra share price, this ASX 200 telco has a market capitalisation of $45.84 billion, with a dividend yield of 4%.
