By Stuart Condie

SYDNEY--ANZ Group shares are on course for their best day since 2020 after the country's fourth-largest lender cut its first-quarter costs by more than analysts had expected.

ANZ on Thursday reported an unaudited cash profit for the three months through December of 1.94 billion Australian dollars, equivalent to US$1.37 billion. That was 6% higher compared with the same period a year earlier.

Stripping out one-off items, profit was up 17% on the average of the prior two quarters, helped by what Chief Executive Nuno Matos called a productivity program.

Operating expenses fell 1% on year earlier after ANZ cut about 4,500 staff and contractors in the second half of its 2025 fiscal year, incurring a one-off cost of A$585 million.

ANZ's ASX-listed stock was up 8.0% midway through Thursday's session at A$40.17, adding about A$9 billion to its market capitalization.

That would be its largest daily gain since March 2020, when global stocks were swinging wildly on uncertainty generated by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

ANZ's first-quarter profit was about 6% stronger than the A$1.83 billion forecast by Citi analysts. They estimated it was about 8% ahead of the quarterly run-rate implied by consensus forecasts for the whole of the fiscal first half.

"The beat was largely driven by faster-than-expected progress on costs," analyst Thomas Strong wrote in a note to clients.

Revenue increased 1% on the average of the prior two quarters, supported by 0.4% growth in net interest income and 5% growth in markets income.

Strong said that markets income of A$557 million was slightly softer than he had anticipated, implying that ANZ's underlying revenue growth was slightly better.

Analysts have been skeptical that former HSBC executive Matos, who took charge in May 2025, could deliver on revenue growth ambitions while materially cutting costs.

Customer deposits grew by 5% over three months to A$787 billion. Net loans and advances grew by 1% over the same period to A$837 billion.

Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 11, 2026 20:52 ET (01:52 GMT)

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