ASX investors have started 2024 safe in the knowledge that 2023 was a strong year for most ASX 200 shares. The year just gone had the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: JXO) add a healthy 7.8%. But let's talk about what happened to the Bank of Queensland Ltd (ASX: BOQ) share price.
In stark contrast to the success of the broader market, BoQ shares had a fairly awful 2023.
The ASX 200 bank stock started last year at $6.90 a share. But by the time December 2023 wrapped up, BoQ was down to just $6.08. This means that Bank of Queensland shares officially recorded a loss of 11.88% for the 2023 calendar year.
Of course, being a bank share, dividend payments softened that loss significantly. BoQ paid out two dividends last year. The first was the June interim dividend of 20 cents per share. The second, the November final dividend of 21 cents per share. Both payments came fully franked, as is the norm with Bank of Queensland.
Although those two dividends were both lower than their 2022 counterparts, they still give BoQ shares a trailing yield of 6.65% today. That means that investors can take a similar figure off of that 11.88% capital loss.
However, the fact remains that BoQ shareholders are underwater for 2023.
A bad year for Bank of Queensland shares in 2023. But what about 2024?
This can probably be put down to a disappointing year from the bank's underlying performance. Investors were indisputably dismayed with the bank's full-year earnings that we got a look at in October.
As we covered at the time, these earnings revealed that the Bank of Queensland took a 70% hit to its statutory profits after tax, which fell to $124 million. Cash earnings were also down but by a far tamer 8% to $450 million.
Nevertheless, investors punished BoQ shares following the release of these results. The shares only partially recovered from this pessimism by the end of the year.
As my Fool colleague James covered late last month, most ASX brokers are bearish on Bank of Queensland shares. The exception is Ord Minnet, which currently has an $8 share price target on the bank for the coming 12 months.
In saying that, we also have share price targets as low as $5.15 from Goldman Sachs. So who knows what's next for BoQ shares in 2024? But no doubt shareholders will be hoping for a better year than 2023.
