Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) is an ASX 200 banking share that occupies a special place in many investors' hearts. For one, Westpac is a household name in Australia, being one of the four ASX 200 big banks that so often dominate local investors' share portfolios.
Not only do a decent chunk of Australians bank with Westpac, but this ASX share has been paying out fully-franked dividends to investors for decades.
There's also the fact that Westpac is actually the oldest bank in Australia, with its previous incarnation, the Bank of New South Wales, being established way back in 1817.
But what of Westpac today? Having an impressive pedigree doesn't automatically make for a good investment, as investors in AMP Ltd (ASX: AMP) have painfully found out over the past two decades.
Indeed, investors haven't been having too good a time in recent years, just going off the Westpac share price alone. Westpac shares today remain around 23.5% below where they were five years ago.
At the current share price (at the time of writing) of $22.10 a share, Westpac is well below its all-time high of around $40 a share that we saw back in 2015. It is also trading at the same levels it was way back in late 2005:
Even so, today Westpac shares offer a fully-franked dividend yield of 5.65%. So is this bank worth a buy right now?
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Are Westpac shares in the buy zone today?
Well, let's see what an expert investor thinks.
Earlier this month, my Fool colleague covered the views that ASX broker Morgans currently has on the Westpac share price. Morgans currently has an add rating on the ASX bank. But not only that, the broker also put Westpac on its list of best ideas for the month of April.
Morgans has given the Westpac share price a 12-month target of $25.80. If realised, that would result in a potential upside of close to 17% from today's pricing.
Morgans singled Westpac out as "having the greatest potential for return on equity improvement amongst the major banks if its business transformation initiatives prove successful".
The broker is looking forward to seeing "improved loan origination and processing capability, cost reductions (including from divestments and cost-out), rapid leverage to higher rates environment, and reduced regulatory credit risk intensity of non-home loan book" from the bank going forward.
It also noted that Westpac's "yield including franking is attractive for income-oriented investors, while the ROE [return on equity] improvement should deliver share price growth".
The broker is pencilling in fully-franked dividends worth $1.53 per share from Westpac for FY2023, rising to $1.59 per share for FY2024.
So that's a fairly unequivocally positive view on this ASX 200 bank share from one of the leading ASX brokers. No doubt investors will be hoping Morgans is on the money here. But we'll have to wait and see what the next 12 months and beyond have in store for the Westpac share price.
