The Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) share price is up more than 4% at $160.51 in Tuesday afternoon trading.
After eclipsing the $200 per share mark in 2021, the investment bank's share price has taken a beating over the past 12 months.
As seen on the chart below, Macquarie has tracked the S&P/ASX 200 Banks index (ASX: XBK) and the Vaneck Australian Banks ETF (ASX: MVB) over much of this time.
However, of late, it has broken away from its banking peers to the downside and now trades near 52-week lows.
Is Macquarie a buy?
That's the question on many ASX 200 investors' minds right now. As an insight, we've looked at some of the numbers.
Compared to its peers, Macquarie stacks up quite well, as seen in the chart below,
| Company Name | P/E | ROE % | Debt to Equity % | P/Book | Net Income Margin % |
| Macquarie Group Ltd | 12.53 | 18.0% | 487.6% | 1.99 | 35.9% |
| Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd | 11.40 | 10.9% | 207.9% | 1.16 | 35.2% |
| Commonwealth Bank of Australia | 18.12 | 12.8% | 250.8% | 2.29 | 41.5% |
| National Australia Bank Ltd | 15.38 | 11.1% | 310.2% | 1.62 | 40.2% |
| Westpac Banking Corp | 17.10 | 7.4% | 279.8% | 1.17 | 26.1% |
| Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd | 11.06 | 7.5% | 196.9% | 0.72 | 30.0% |
| Bank of Queensland Ltd | 13.29 | 6.6% | 274.3% | 0.74 | 25.9% |
| Median | 13.29 | 11% | 274% | 1.17 | 35.2% |
Macquarie currently trades below the median price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 13.3 times.
It also delivered an above-peer return on equity (ROE) of 18% and isn't too far off the group's price-to-book (P/B) ratio at 1.99 times.
However, Macquarie's debt load relative to shareholder equity is particularly high, coming in at more than 487% – almost double that of the banking majors' median score.
Hence, questions arise on the investment bank's sensitivity to increasing interest rates and what it is doing to hedge this exposure.
What do the experts say?
Nevertheless, the share has some interesting characteristics and this would likely be why 10 out of the 14 brokers covering Macquarie rate it as a buy right now, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
As seen in the table below, only four brokers currently rate it as a hold or sell, down from previous months.
The consensus price target is $198 a share, not too far from the consensus valuation in July of $205 a share.
| Recommendation | 18-Jul-2022 | 18-Aug-2022 | 18-Sep-2022 | Current |
| Buy | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| Hold | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Sell | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Consensus Price Target [$] | 205.15 | 198.46 | 199.54 | 198.29 |
As a result, it appears sentiment remains bullish on the Macquarie share price, despite its pullback.
Whether or not this translates to a successful outcome, we'll have to wait and see.
The Macquarie share price is down 22% this year to date.
