Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) is one of the most popular shares on the ASX and features in a large number of investment portfolios.
And when I say large, I mean it!
In November, the big four bank released its annual report and revealed that it has a total of 585,000 shareholders. That's roughly one in fifty people in Australia.
In addition, even if you don't hold Westpac shares directly, there's a strong chance that you have indirect exposure through your superannuation fund.
Overall, this means that the performance of Australian oldest bank's shares has a significant impact on the wealth of Australians.
But has this impact been a positive one? Let's see what would have happened if I had invested $5,000 into the bank's shares one year ago.
Investing $5,000 into Westpac shares a year ago
One year ago, Westpac's shares were down in the doldrums and unloved by the market.
They were changing hands for just $22.14, which isn't too far off a multi-year low.
This means that if I were to have invested $5,000 (and an extra $3.64 for good measure), I would have ended up buying 226 Westpac shares.
Would that have been a good decision? You bet it would!
The big four banks have been on fire over the past 12 months with investors flooding back into the sector and driving their share prices higher. And just when you thought they couldn't go even higher, they would climb again.
This led to the Westpac share price climbing to a nine-year high during 2024. And while it has pulled back a touch this month, it is still significantly outperforming the market since this time last year.
Over the period, the ASX 200 index has risen an impressive 14.3%.
Whereas Westpac's shares have climbed a remarkable 45.3%, leaving them at $32.17 on Friday.
This means that those 226 shares I could have bought with a $5,000 investment a year ago would now have a market value of $7,270.42.
Don't forget the dividends
Over the past 12 months, Westpac has paid out two dividends. It paid out 72 cents per share in December 2023 and then 90 cents per share in June 2024.
Technically, I wouldn't have received the first dividend due to the ex-dividend date being before my purchase date, but I'm including it in this example because another dividend of a similar value is just days away from being paid.
Based on the above, my 226 shares would have pulled in $366.12 of dividend income over the period, boosting my total holding to $7,636.59.
That's over $2,600 more than my original investment, which equates to a total return of just over 50%.
Here's hoping 2025 will be another successful year for Westpac shares.
