Shareholders of Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) shares have just wrapped up a month they would probably rather forget. Over September, the Coles share price fell from $16.27 down to $15.56. That's a fall worth 4.36%.
Given that August saw Coles sales drop by an even nastier 10.56%, it certainly hasn't been a happy time for investors in this ASX 200 blue chip supermarket operator of late.
These falls put the Coles share price down 7.23% year to date. That's including the 1.9% slide Coles has experienced since the start of October as well.
And yet Coles is a popular blue chip share on the ASX 200. As a consumer staples stock, Coles has delighted income investors in recent years by ratcheting up its dividend payments on an annual basis since 2019.
The woes that Coles has suffered in recent months have pushed up the company's dividend yield to over 4.3% today. As we covered late last month, I personally regard Coles as having one of the ASX 200's safest dividends.
With this in mind, could Coles shares be in the buy zone this October after such a conspicuous share price plummet?
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Are Coles shares in the buy zone this October?
One ASX broker who thinks that Coles shares are indeed worth a look today is Citi. As my Fool colleague James covered earlier this week, Citi has given the Coles share price a buy rating. That's alongside a 12-month share price target of $18.30. If the company did rise to that level, investors would enjoy a near-20% upside from where the shares sit today.
Citi liked what it saw with Coles' 2023 financial year earnings report that we got a look at over the recent reporting season. Despite the negative reception from investors, this broker reckons "that the market looks too low on sales in FY24", and Coles has a bright future ahead of it.
Analysts at Citi are also predicting that Coles will continue to be a dividend heavyweight going forward. The broker is pencilling in a forecast of 61 cents per share in fully-franked dividends for FY24, rising to 68 cents per share for FY25.
So there's a lot of upside in Coles shares today if Citi is on the money here. But we'll just have to wait and see what happens over the coming 12 months.
