<div id="readability-page-1"><div> By Stuart Condie <pre></pre> SYDNEY--ANZ Group shares are on course for their best day since 2020 after the country's fourth-largest lender cut its first-quarter costs by more than analysts had expected. ANZ on Thursday reported an unaudited cash profit for the three months through December of 1.94 billion Australian dollars, equivalent to US$1.37 billion. That was 6% higher compared with the same period a year earlier. Stripping out one-off items, profit was up 17% on the average of the prior two quarters, helped by what Chief Executive Nuno Matos called a productivity program. Operating expenses fell 1% on year earlier after ANZ cut about 4,500 staff and contractors in the second half of its 2025 fiscal year, incurring a one-off cost of A$585 million. ANZ's ASX-listed stock was up 8.0% midway through Thursday's session at A$40.17, adding about A$9 billion to its market capitalization. That would be its largest daily gain since March 2020, when global stocks were swinging wildly on uncertainty generated by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. ANZ's first-quarter profit was about 6% stronger than the A$1.83 billion forecast by Citi analysts. They estimated it was about 8% ahead of the quarterly run-rate implied by consensus forecasts for the whole of the fiscal first half. &#34;The beat was largely driven by faster-than-expected progress on costs,&#34; analyst Thomas Strong wrote in a note to clients. Revenue increased 1% on the average of the prior two quarters, supported by 0.4% growth in net interest income and 5% growth in markets income. Strong said that markets income of A$557 million was slightly softer than he had anticipated, implying that ANZ's underlying revenue growth was slightly better. Analysts have been skeptical that former HSBC executive Matos, who took charge in May 2025, could deliver on revenue growth ambitions while materially cutting costs. Customer deposits grew by 5% over three months to A$787 billion. Net loans and advances grew by 1% over the same period to A$837 billion. <pre></pre> Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com <pre></pre> (END) Dow Jones Newswires February 11, 2026 21:07 ET (02:07 GMT)Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones &amp; Company, Inc.</div></div>

ANZ 集团的股价上涨了 8%，达到 40.17 澳元，创下自 2020 年以来的最佳表现，此次上涨得益于第一季度现金利润达到 19.4 亿澳元，超出市场预期。该利润比花旗的预测高出 6%，主要得益于包括裁员 4500 人在内的成本削减措施。运营费用同比下降 1%，为积极的业绩贡献了力量。客户存款增长了 5%，达到 7870 亿澳元，而净贷款增加了 1%，达到 8370 亿澳元。由于股票表现，市场资本化增加了约 90 亿澳元

由于成本削减效果显现，澳新银行股价迎来了自 2020 年以来的最佳表现