The Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) share price has started this week in the red, closing down 0.3% at $54.26 per share yesterday. That makes for a loss of 1.5% over the first 2 trading days.
It also puts the retail giant down 2.7% so far in the new financial quarter (Q2 FY22), which kicked off on 1 October.
By comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is down 0.7% since the closing bell on 30 September marked the end of Q1.
That's the recent price action.
But how did the Wesfarmers share price perform relative to the benchmark last quarter?
We take a look at that, and some of the big factors moving the price.
How did the Wesfarmers share price perform last quarter?
Wesfarmers started the quarter gone (Q1 FY22) by trading for $59.10 per share.
When the closing bell marked the end of Q1 on 30 September the Wesfarmers share price stood at $55.75, down 5.7% over the quarter.
By comparison, the ASX 200 managed to notch up a 0.3% gain.
It wasn't all downhill for Wesfarmers shareholders though. In fact, Wesfarmers' shares hit all-time highs of $66.06 on 20 August.
But by 29 September they'd fallen to a low for the quarter, down some 19% from the highs, at $55.31 per share.
What were ASX investors considering over the quarter?
While COVID-19 restrictions have been with us for far longer than we'd like, and should hopefully be a relic of the past, they continued to occupy investors' minds in the past quarter.
With its subsidiary holdings including Kmart, Bunnings, and Officeworks all considered essential services and allowed to remain open, many of Wesfarmers' assets continued to perform well over the quarter.
But the company is more than a retail share. And the Wesfarmers share price looked to have gotten a lift on 16 July when the company reported its Mt Holland lithium project in Western Australia had received ministerial approval.
In August, Wesfarmers again made news over an energy deal.
As my Foolish colleague Brooke Cooper pointed out at the time: "The agreement is between energy infrastructure company Jemena and Wesfarmers' subsidiary Coregas. It will see green hydrogen supplied to New South Wales' transport sector for the first time."
With the Wesfarmers share price having notched an all-time high in the past quarter, it will be interesting to see what the coming months offer for shareholders.
