Despite travelling 1.45% higher to $7.01 today, the Bank of Queensland Limited (ASX: BOQ) share price is down 13% in 2022.
While the regional bank hasn't made any price-sensitive announcements since its half-year results in April, investors are continuing to sell.
Bank of Queensland shares have dropped around 18% despite reporting growth across all key financial metrics.
Let's take a look at what might have weighed on Bank of Queensland shares lately.
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What's happened to Bank of Queensland shares?
It appears the Bank of Queensland share price is being dragged down by negative investor sentiment.
The S&P/ASX 200 Financials (ASX: XFJ) has tumbled 8% in the last six weeks amid concerns about an impending recession.
Aggressive rate hikes by major central banks to cool down inflation has put selling pressure across global markets.
In particular, the United States reported a 16-month low in consumer confidence as market conditions continue to falter.
Notably, Bank of Queensland shares hit a 52-week low of $6.39 in late June before staging a mini rebound.
Interestingly, a number of directors within the company have decided to take advantage of the share price weakness.
Non-executive chair Patrick Allaway bought 15,000 Bank of Queensland shares for an average price of $6.93 apiece in June.
Further, non-executive director Mickie Rosen and managing director and CEO George Frazis picked up 10,000 and 14,750 shares, respectively. Both transactions were conducted via an on-market trade in June with the buyers paying an average price of less than $6.90 a share.
This could be considered an absolute steal in light of the projections of a couple of brokers who weighed in on the company's outlook recently.
As reported by ANZ Share Investing, Citi cut its price target for Bank of Queensland shares by 5.4% to $8.75.
Based on today's price, this implies an upside of almost 25% for investors.
On the other hand, Macquarie raised its outlook to "outperform" from "neutral" for the bank's shares.
Again, although its analysts reduced the price target by 8.6% to $8.00, it still reflects a 14% improvement from where the bank's share price trades now.
Bank of Queensland share price snapshot
Market volatility on the ASX has led Bank of Queensland shares to sink 20% over the last 12 months.
These losses have mostly occurred during the past few months.
Bank of Queensland commands a market capitalisation of roughly $4.53 billion.
