0012 GMT - Westpac's bears at Macquarie say the Australian lender continues to underperform relative to its peers. The bank beat consensus expectations for the December quarter, but Macquarie's analysts reckon that timing issues partly explain why costs were lower than forecast. They tell clients in a note that wage increases came in during January, while Westpac also benefited from seasonally low investment spend. The analysts point out that underlying margins were softer than those at Australia's other major banks, although they concede that volume growth was solid. Macquarie keeps an underperform rating and A$35.00 target price on the stock, which is down 1.0% at A$40.13. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 15, 2026 19:12 ET (00:12 GMT)

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