The Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) share price is currently going through one of its roughest patches in years.
Shares of this ASX 200 retail conglomerate last peaked in August of 2021. That was when Wesfarmers hit its current 52-week and all-time high of $67.20 a share. But today, the company is going for just $44.56 at the time of writing, down 0.51% for the day so far.
That puts Wesfarmers shares down a nasty 25.76% year to date in 2022 so far. The company is also down more than 32% from its all-time high that we saw last year, a fall comparable to the drops seen during the COVID-19 crash of 2020.
So now that we've established how painful the past few months have been for the Wesfarmers share price, let's talk about the elephant in the room – are Wesfarmers shares currently a bargain buying opportunity?
Is the Wesfarmers share price a buy today?
Well, at least one broker thinks it is.
As my Fool colleague James covered earlier this week, Morgans is currently bullish on Wesfarmers shares at their current level. Morgans is currently rating Wesfarmers as an "add", with a 12-month share price target of $58.40. If that came to pass, it would equate to a potential gain of more than 31% off of the current share price.
Morgans noted that Wesfarmers' recent strategy update provided "insights into the growth opportunities available for each business division and the strategy going forward".
All in all, the broker concluded the following for Wesfarmers shares right now:
We continue to see WES as a long-term, core portfolio holding with a strong mix of businesses, highly regarded management team and a healthy balance sheet.
But Morgans isn't the only professional investor optimistic over Wesfarmers at the moment. My Fool colleague Tony chatted to Adam Dawes of Shaw and Partners last month.
Dawes noted how Wesfarmers shares have fallen over the past few months and stated that "there's some definite value there" when it comes to the current Wesfarmers share price. He was also excited over the future prospects of Wesfarmers' lithium battery business.
So that's how two professional investors view Wesfarmers at the moment. Both clearly reckon the Wesfarmers share price is heading up, and not down, over the upcoming 21 months. So it will be interesting to see if these predictions play out.
At the current Wesfarmers share price, this ASX 200 conglomerate has a market capitalisation of $50.46 billion, with a dividend yield of 3.82%.
