The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price has struggled over the past few months.
The ASX banking share closed at $22.59 on Tuesday, having clipped another small loss in yesterday's session.
This year to date, ANZ is down more than 17%, having slipped from previous highs of $27.69 on 20 April.
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Are ANZ shares a buy?
Despite its recent troubles on the chart, the ANZ share price has still caught the attention of various brokers recommending stocks to their clients.
The analyst team at Citi recently updated its view on the bank, rating the share a buy with a $29 price target.
Chief to the broker's call is ANZ's move to purchase the banking business of Suncorp Group Ltd (ASX: SUN) – a move that it feels will be accretive to the bank's earnings.
Aside from that, it forecasts dividend growth of 5–7% over the coming two-year period respectively. That's something to think about.
Meanwhile, Macquarie also revised its rating on ANZ upward today as well, pushing its stance on the share to outperform.
The two brokers join four others in rating ANZ a buy, while another eight recommend holding and one advises investors to sell the bank's shares, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
The consensus price target from this list is $25.43, suggesting a small amount of upside potential should the group be correct.
Meanwhile, ASX financials continue to look volatile, and are down nearly 3.5% on the month as a collective, with the S&P/ASX 200 Financials index (ASX: XFJ) down by that much.
The macroeconomic risks of rising interest rates and a weaker economic outlook pose a direct threat to interest income received from the underwriting of credit.
And with the Reserve Bank (RBA) committed to its tightening policy of raising policy rates to reign in the cost of living, be sure that shares like ANZ will remain in the limelight.
The ANZ share price is down 19% over the past 12 months.
