The Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price is rising again on Thursday.
In afternoon trade, the banking giant's shares are up 0.7% to $23.81.
This means the Westpac share price is now up 15% since the start of the month.
Can the Westpac share price keep rising?
The good news for investors is that it may not be too late to buy Australia's oldest bank's shares.
According to a note out of Goldman Sachs, its analysts have retained their conviction buy rating with a $27.07 price target.
Based on the current Westpac share price, this implies potential upside of almost 14% for investors over the next 12 months.
And with Goldman expecting a $1.39 per share fully franked dividend in FY 2023, which equates to a 5.8% yield, the total potential return on offer is closer to 20%.
What did the broker say?
Goldman explained that Westpac remains its top big four bank pick due to its strong leverage to rising interest rates. It said:
We continue to prefer WBC (Buy on CL) reflecting its: i) strong leverage to rising rates given a relatively larger proportion of low cost deposits, ii) cost management initiatives which, in contrast to peers, have not yet moved away from initially guided cost targets and while we think its A$8 bn FY24 cost target will now be unachievable, we still forecast a 7% reduction in underlying expenses, iii)) recent market update highlighting that the business is still investing effectively in its franchise, and iv) our 12-month TP implies a 21% [now 20%] TSR, and we note on a 12-mo forward P/E the stock is trading at a 17% discount to peers, versus the historic average discount of 2%. We are also Buy on NAB; Sell on CBA.
