Sydney, Feb 23, 2026, 17:19 AEDT — Market closed
- Aristocrat slipped 2.1% to finish at A$46.97, adding to Friday’s 4.6% drop.
- A filing indicates 732,602 shares were repurchased on Feb 20, totaling A$35.3 million.
- Jarden cuts its target price. Investors now eye May 13 for the half-year results.
Aristocrat Leisure Ltd slipped 2.1% to finish at A$46.97 on Monday, deepening losses from late last week. The stock has now shed roughly 39% over the past year. Volume came in around 2.85 million shares, according to MarketScreener data.
The recent drop is drawing attention, since the gaming machine and digital games company has been relying heavily on a substantial on-market buyback to deliver cash to shareholders while revamping segments of its online division. Right now, investors are left questioning if those measures will still do the job should earnings momentum shift toward the back half of the year.
The stock dipped under the price range Aristocrat last paid during its latest disclosed buyback. That’s enough to rattle short-term traders, even when the company itself is still active on the buy side.
Aristocrat scooped up 732,602 shares on Feb. 20, spending A$35.25 million at prices ranging from A$47.78 to A$49.67, its daily buyback filing showed. The company also bumped up the top-end of its on-market buyback program to as much as A$1.5 billion and pushed the finish line out to March 5, 2027.
Speaking at last week’s annual meeting in Sydney, Chief Executive Trevor Croker told shareholders the company is “planning to exit the White Label business in Interactive,” pointing to a unit that mostly runs in the UK and Europe. Croker put the business’s contribution at about US$36 million in Interactive revenue for FY25, but said profits were negligible. He also highlighted a legal cost recovery of A$45 million tied to a settlement with competitor Light & Wonder. Company Announcements
Jarden is sticking with its buy call, though the broker trimmed its price target to A$68, down from A$72, after the annual meeting update. The move comes as Jarden points to foreign-exchange drags and a somewhat weaker near-term earnings outlook, a summary from FNArena shows.
No real lift from the wider market either. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia slipped 0.61% by the end of the session, dragged down by IT, healthcare, and property trusts, Investing.com reported.
The buyback doesn’t guarantee support. Should North American casino operators pull back on slot machine upgrades, or if the Interactive unit’s spending and exits weigh on margins for longer than anticipated, shares could remain weighed down.
All eyes turn now to see whether buybacks keep pace in the days ahead, with updated outlook expected before Aristocrat drops its Half Year 2026 results on May 13.
