August has been a stellar month for the Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) share price.
Whereas the S&P/ASX 200 index (ASX: XJO) has climbed 1.9% over the last month, Macquarie shares are 6.3% in the green.
Let's investigate why.
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What's behind the Macquarie Group share price in August?
The Macquarie Group share price began August exchanging hands at $157.80 apiece, a touch above the low for the month of $155.61.
Macquarie shares immediately jumped from 4 August after broker Morgans released a positive note on Australia's largest investment bank.
Morgans likes Macquarie's exposure to infrastructure and renewables, despite its posture on near-term headwinds for the company. Morgans reiterated its add rating and assigned a $172.30 price target for the Macquarie Group share price.
Macquarie shares gained over $4 per share in the week after the broker note became public to just shy of $160.
Then, on 11 August, Macquarie's bank capital note offering (BCN3) opened to investors, where the company sought to raise a further $500 million as a liquidity buffer.
As my colleague Mitchell reported at the time, the coupon rate on these notes sits at 2.9% per annum, meaning the bank gets to beef up its balance sheet at a manageable interest rate. Macquarie shares climbed a further 3% in the days following the debt offering.
Since mid-August, the Macquarie Group share price has continued its ascent northwards. Although, there has been no major company-specific catalyst to link to this.
However, ASX-listed bank shares have posted solid gains over the past few weeks, particularly on the back of Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (ASX: CBA) strong FY21 earnings.
In its report, CBA announced a $6 billion share repurchase program, a significant increase in its dividend and robust growth in profits.
As a result, the basket of ASX-listed bank shares have had a strong few weeks on the charts, and Macquarie is no exception to the rule here.
There haven't been other market sensitive information released specific to the company. Therefore, it stands to reason that investors are buying Macquarie shares on the back of this positive sentiment.
Macquarie Group share price snapshot
Macquarie shares are exchanging hands at $166.76 apiece at the time of writing, a 0.5% gain on the day.
The Macquarie Group share price has posted a year to date return of 20%, extending the previous 12 month's gain of 31%.
These results have outpaced the broad index's return of around 25% over the past year.
