Melbourne, May 16, 2026, 06:05 AEST
Telstra Group Limited has used about 89% of its A$1.25 billion on-market share buy-back, after repurchasing another 1,095,583 shares on May 15 for A$5.88 million, a daily filing showed. An on-market buy-back is when a company buys its own shares through the exchange, usually to return capital and support per-share metrics.
The number matters because the program is due to end on June 30, and Telstra now has about A$134 million of stated capacity left. The filing showed cumulative repurchases of 220.5 million shares for A$1.116 billion, equal to about 1.9% of the 11.39 billion shares in the class being bought back.
Telstra shares closed Friday at A$5.38, up 1.13%, with 15.87 million shares traded, after touching their high for the session. The stock’s 52-week range was A$4.51 to A$5.455, leaving it close to the top end of the band.
The May 15 update was not a new strategy announcement. It named Barrenjoey Markets as broker for the buy-back, with Friday’s purchases made between A$5.34 and A$5.38 a share; Telstra said it would buy back shares only when it considered the timing and circumstances beneficial to capital management.
This is a shareholder-return story, but it is also a mobile-pricing story. Telstra’s cash returns are being watched just after price increases that began May 5, including a A$4 monthly rise for most postpaid mobile plans and around A$5 for most prepaid plans; the company said the increases help fund network performance, reliability and security.
The company expanded the buy-back in February from A$1 billion to A$1.25 billion after completing A$637 million in the first half. Chief Executive Vicki Brady told investors the on-market buy-back was expected to support earnings and dividend per-share growth and reflected confidence in Telstra’s balance sheet and outlook.
The same half-year report showed profit attributable to equity holders rose 9.4% to A$1.124 billion, while the board lifted the interim dividend to 10.5 cents a share. Telstra also tightened fiscal 2026 underlying EBITDAaL guidance — operating earnings after lease amortisation — to A$8.2 billion to A$8.4 billion.
Mobile remains the swing factor. In February, Telstra said mobile services revenue grew 5.6% in the half and mobile EBITDA rose A$93 million, helped by higher average revenue per user and more customers choosing its network.
The competitive backdrop is still tight. Guardian analysis last month said Telstra’s latest price changes cleared the way for rivals including Optus and TPG-owned Vodafone to make similar moves, while also citing consumer advocates who warned the increases could push some customers to look harder at cheaper plans.
Analysts have treated Telstra as a defensive ASX name because of its dividend and mobile base. “Outside of AI and tech upgrades, Telstra remains one of the most defensive names on the ASX,” Zavier Wong, market analyst at eToro, said after the February result, according to Reuters. Reuters
But the buy-back is not a free pass. Telstra said it reserves the right to suspend or terminate the program at any time, and the May price increases will need to hold without a damaging rise in churn — customers switching to other carriers — as households weigh bigger phone bills against cheaper offers.
For now, the next hard numbers are likely to come from more daily buy-back notices and, later, evidence of whether the mobile price rises stuck. If the program keeps running near recent levels, the gap to the A$1.25 billion cap will narrow fast; what investors will not know immediately is the customer cost of getting there.
