Sydney, Feb 25, 2026, 17:05 AEDT — Market closed.
- Woolworths shares surged as the grocer topped first-half profit estimates and bumped up its interim dividend.
- Management pointed to a pick-up in early second-half sales in its Australian Food division.
- Next up: Coles results are due later this week, offering another look at how supermarket rivals are stacking up.
Woolworths Group Ltd (WOW.AX) jumped 12.97% on Wednesday, closing at A$35.63 after touching a session low of A$33.00. (Intelligent Investor)
The increase is noteworthy—investors have been looking for evidence that Woolworths can lure customers back without sacrificing margins in the process. Australians remain price-conscious, and grocery retailers are once again fighting for volume.
This also drops right in the middle of reporting season, where a single upbeat update can shift the outlook for an entire sector. The focus for Woolworths: are these price changes actually holding, or is this only a brief spike?
Woolworths reported a 3.4% lift in group sales to A$37.1 billion for the first half, and EBIT jumped 14.4% to A$1.66 billion, both figures excluding significant items. Net profit after tax (NPAT), also before one-offs, increased 16.4% to A$859 million. But once significant items were included, NPAT plunged 49.4% to A$374 million—a A$485 million after-tax charge, mostly due to a bigger wage remediation provision, weighed on the result. The interim dividend moves up to 45 Australian cents per share, fully franked. Woolworths flagged a 5.8% rise in Australian Food sales for the first seven weeks of the new half, projecting Australian Food EBIT growth at the upper end of its mid-to-high single-digit guidance. “Trading momentum is stronger,” CEO Amanda Bardwell said, while chair Scott Perkins cited “greater stability.” (Company Announcements)
Reuters flagged that the profit beat came in ahead of the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$813.5 million, crediting Woolworths’ cost cuts and sharper pricing moves for luring back price-conscious shoppers. “A very promotionally intense period,” Bardwell remarked to analysts. Ord Minnett weighed in, calling the revised outlook “still appears conservative,” while RBC’s Michael Toner described the first-half food sales as “the strongest number we have seen” out of Woolworths for some time. Woolworths and Coles together handle around two-thirds of Australia’s grocery market. eToro’s Josh Gilbert said Coles’ upcoming figures could offer more clarity on where the supermarket rivalry stands. (Reuters)
Market’s closed, so the question now is if this rally sticks into Thursday’s session, or if sellers step in like they tend to after big earnings gaps. Traders are eyeing broker forecast revisions and looking to see if other consumer staples get pulled higher too.
There’s a catch: that bump in sales may be fueled by deeper discounts and rising costs, pressures that could hit margins down the line—even if current volumes impress. Wage remediation and potential one-off charges are still in play as key variables for headline profit. One wrong move on pricing, and customers could quickly defect to competitors.
Coles will post its HY26 numbers on Feb. 27, giving investors their next shot at judging whether Woolworths’ rally signals a real shift or just a flash in the pan for the duopoly. (Coles Group)
