In early afternoon trade on Friday the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) share price is up almost 1% to $26.74.
This latest gain means that the ANZ share price has climbed an impressive 13% since Christmas Eve.
One key driver of this gain was the Royal Commission final report which was released at the start of the month. The recommendations in the report were nowhere near as severe as many investors had feared, leading to a relief rally in bank shares.
Is it too late to buy ANZ shares?
I don't think it is. Whilst its shares are by no means the bargain buy they were before Christmas, I still see a lot of value in them today.
This is especially the case for income investors. Despite its strong share price rally, ANZ's shares still provide investors with a trailing fully franked 6% dividend yield.
Not only is this yield greater than the market average of approximately 4%, it is vastly superior to any of the yields on offer with the bank's savings accounts.
For example, at present the ANZ Online Saver account provides a base rate of 0.5% per annum and a 1.8% per annum bonus rate for three months for new customers.
Even for new customers the true annual rate, after factoring in the bonus period, is lower than inflation at present. Which means the value of your savings is actually dwindling by being in the account.
Whereas if these funds were invested in ANZ's shares they would be smashing inflation by generating a fully franked 6% yield.
It is worth remembering that there is risk involved when investing in shares, but I feel confident the risk/reward on offer with ANZ is great enough to consider putting some savings into its shares.
The same applies to rivals National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), which I feel offer generous dividend yields and are trading at attractive levels.
