The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is again powering ahead this Wednesday, putting the psychologically important 7,000-point threshold in sight again. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has gained 0.52% so far today, all the way up to 6,995 points. Pity Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) shares aren't keeping up.
To be sure, the Wesfarmers share price is having a decent day today. But it is 'only' up by 0.4% against the index's 0.5%. Wesfarmers shares have also been doing fairly poorly over the year to date as well. In 2022 so far, the ASX 200 has lost around 7.8% of its value.
But Wesfarmers shares have almost tripled that loss, falling a painful 22.4% since January. That's despite gaining around 9% since the end of September.
Even so, Wesfarmers' historically low share price has attracted the money of quite a big fish.
Mike Roche is a non-executive director of Wesfarmers. According to an ASX notice from 2 November, Roche has been buying up Wesfarmers shares. The notice showed that Roche picked up 1,500 shares at a price of $44.94 each in an on-market trade on 2 November. That would have been worth a cool $67,410.
He would have already enjoyed some nice capital appreciation since then, seeing as Wesfarmers shares are trading at $46.68 at the time of writing, up close to 4% on Roche's purchase price.
It brings the total number of Wesfarmers shares owned directly and indirectly by Roche to 12,060, worth almost $563,000 today.
So if this director is buying up his own shares, should we all follow suit?
Image source: Getty Images
Are Wesfarmers shares a buy today?
An ASX broker thinks so. As my Fool colleague James reported on the weekend, ASX broker Morgans is currently viewing Wesfarmers as a screaming buy. The broker has an add rating on the company, with a 12-month share price target of $55.60. That implies a further upside of close to 20% over the next year.
Morgans said that Wesfarmers "possesses one of the highest quality retail portfolios in Australia with strong brands including Bunnings, Kmart and Officeworks". It noted the company's "highly regarded management team" and healthy balance sheet.
The broker is also expecting Wesfarmers to keep ratcheting up its dividends in coming years. It is pencilling in dividends worth $1.82 per share in FY2023 and $1.89 in FY2024.
So both this broker Morgans and Wesfarmers' director Roche believe that Wesfarmers is ripe for a buy today.
At the current Wesfarmers share price, this ASX 200 blue-chip share has a dividend yield of 3.86%.
