Westpac's Performance Looks Soft Relative to Peers -- Market Talk

Dow Jones

Feb 16

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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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) \n</p>\n<pre style=\"white-space: pre\">\n \n</pre>\n<p>\n  (END) Dow Jones Newswires\n</p>\n<p>\n  February 15, 2026 19:12 ET (00:12 GMT)\n</p>\n<p>\n  Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones &amp; Company, Inc.\n</p>\n</font>","source":null,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Westpac's Performance Looks Soft Relative to Peers -- Market Talk</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nWestpac's Performance Looks Soft Relative to Peers -- Market Talk\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n<div class=\"head\" \">\n\n\n<div class=\"h-thumb\" style=\"background-image:url(https://static.tigerbbs.com/150f88aa4d182df19190059f4a365e99);background-size:cover;\"></div>\n\n<div class=\"h-content\">\n<p class=\"h-name\">Dow Jones </p>\n<p class=\"h-time\">2026-02-16 08:12</p>\n</div>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<font class=\"NormalMinus1\" face=\"Arial\">\n<p>\n     0012 GMT - Westpac's bears at <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/MQG.AU\">Macquarie</a> 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) \n</p>\n<pre style=\"white-space: pre\">\n \n</pre>\n<p>\n  (END) Dow Jones Newswires\n</p>\n<p>\n  February 15, 2026 19:12 ET (00:12 GMT)\n</p>\n<p>\n  Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones &amp; Company, Inc.\n</p>\n</font>\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","isBrief":false,"type":0,"news_type":1,"symbol":"WBC.NZ","symbol_name":"Westpac Banking Corporation Ordinary Shares","start_time":0,"source_url":"https://dowjonesnews.com/newdjn/logon.aspx?AL=N","article_id":"2611171905","we_media_id":"106","thumbnails":[],"rights":null,"url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2611171905","pubTimestamp":1771200720,"columns":[],"sourceInfo":null,"weMediaInfo":{"media_name":"Dow Jones","introduction":"Dow Jones publishes the world’s most trusted business news and financial information in a variety of media.","home_visible":0,"id":"106","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/150f88aa4d182df19190059f4a365e99"},"summary":"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. ","collect":0,"end_time":0,"defaultTopTitle":"","property":[],"viewcount":null,"language":"en","relate_stocks":{"WBC.NZ":"Westpac Banking Corporation Ordinary Shares","BK8062":"综合性银行","BK7511":"ESG概念","BK7135":"综合性银行","WBC.AU":"WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION"},"translate_title":"西太平洋银行的业绩相对于同行看起来疲软——市场讨论","themeId":null,"isJumpTheme":false,"ttsUrl":null,"symbols_score_info":{"WBC.AU":0.9,"WBC.NZ":1.5},"content_text":"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) \n\n\n \n\n\n  (END) Dow Jones Newswires\n\n\n  February 15, 2026 19:12 ET (00:12 GMT)\n\n\n  Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.","kind":"highlight","is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":false,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"-1","news_tag":"","news_rank":0,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":0,"need_auth":true,"code":"91000000","status":"200"}}}