Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) shares are marching higher today.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) bank stock closed up 2.8% at $38.92 each yesterday following the release of the Westpac's FY 2025 results. In morning trade on Tuesday, shares are changing hands for $40.03 apiece, up 0.5%.
For some context, the ASX 200 is down 0.2% at this same time.
Taking a step back, Westpac shares have gained 23.5% over the past 12 months, significantly outpacing the 8.8% one-year gains delivered by the benchmark index.
And that's not including the $1.53 in fully franked dividends Westpac paid out (or declared) over this time. At the current share price, this sees Westpac stock trading on a fully franked dividend yield (partly trailing, partly pending) of 3.8%.
If you're looking to bag that final FY 2025 dividend payout of 77 cents per share, by the way, you'll need to own the ASX 200 bank stock at market close tomorrow, 5 November. Shares trade ex-dividend on Thursday. You can then expect to see that passive income payout hit your account on 19 December.
That is, of course, if you own or decide to buy Westpac shares.
Which brings us back to our headline question.
Image source: Getty Images
Are Westpac shares a buy following the full year results?
Highlights for the 12 months to 30 September included a 3% year on year lift in net interest income to $19.47 billion.
However, with operating expenses higher and slight erosion in the bank's net interest margin, Westpac's full year net profit after tax slipped 1% to $6.99 billion.
Potentially offering a boost to Westpac shares on Monday, the bank also announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell its $21.4 billion RAMS mortgage business to a consortium. The buyers group includes Pepper Money Ltd (ASX: PPM), KKR, and PIMCO.
Commenting on the RAMS divestment, Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) said:
WBC have confirmed the sale of the RAMS portfolio to Pepper Money, which is expected to be completed by 2H26. The portfolio is currently $21.4bn (~3% of WBC's entire book). This is expected to release 20bps of capital. By the time of the sale, as the book is running off, WBC noted it will see very little drop-off in earnings as the revenues are largely offset by expenses.
While the broker noted Westpac's strong capital position and improving credit quality as positives, Macquarie kept an underperform rating on Westpac shares.
On the negative side of the ledger for FY 2026, Macquarie cited a weaker outlook for net interest margins, elevated expense guidance, and flat business earnings.
Connecting the dots, the broker concluded:
WBC remains expensive, trading at ~20x FY26E P/E (a ~25% premium to ANZ and ~4 standard deviations above its historical P/E rel). With execution risks around the UNITE program and emerging headwinds from lower rates, we continue to see risk to WBC's elevated multiple.
Macquarie raised its price target for Westpac shares to $32.00, up from the prior $31.50. That's more than 22% below current levels.
