Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) shares had a positive finish to the week.
On Friday, Australia's oldest bank ended the session 0.4% higher at $30.74.
This means that the big four bank's shares recorded a decent 3% gain for the week.
While this is good news for investors that bought a week earlier, what about those that put money into the bank a year ago? How are they faring with their investments?
Well, let's take a look and see what a $10,000 investment back in March 2024 would be worth today.
$10,000 invested in Westpac shares a year ago
One year ago, it was possible for investors to pick up the bank's shares for $26.47 a piece.
This means that if you had $10,000 (and an extra $5.66) to invest in Westpac's shares, you could have picked up a total of 378 units.
Given how at that point in time, the bank's shares had just rallied 25% over the previous six months, not many analysts were recommending that investors snap them up.
In fact, almost all the major brokers felt that the big four banks were overvalued a year ago. And while Westpac may not have looked as overvalued as Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), which was named the most expensive bank stock in the world, few analysts saw scope for its shares to rise meaningfully.
For example, UBS had a sell rating and $23.00 price target, Morgans had a hold rating and $22.97 price target, Morgan Stanley had an underweight rating and $22.40 price target, and Macquarie had an underperform rating and $26.00 price target.
Clearly, buying Westpac shares at that point took nerves of steel. But it certainly paid to ignore the major brokers and jump in.
As mentioned above, the bank's shares ended the week at $30.74. This means that those 378 units now have a market value of $11,619.72 This is $1,600 more than your original investment.
But the returns don't stop there!
Don't forget the dividends
Westpac is among the most generous dividend payers on the Australian share market and this continued to be the case over the past 12 months.
During this time, the bank declared and paid total fully franked dividends of $1.66 per share. As a result, those 378 Westpac shares would have pulled in dividend income of $627.48.
If we add this to the share price gains, you would have an investment valued at $12,247.20.
That's almost $2,250 more than your original investment and represents a total return in the region of 22%.
As a comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has delivered a total return of approximately 5.7% over the same period.
Here's hoping that the next 12 months will be equally successful for shareholders.
