ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ) shares are on the move on Friday.
At the time of writing, the banking giant's shares are up over 1% to $37.11.
This follows the release of its half-year results before the market open.
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ANZ shares push higher on results day
For the six months ended 31 March, ANZ reported a 3% half-on-half increase in operating income to $11,204 million. This reflects a 2% decline in net interest income to $8,888 million and a 28% jump in other operating income to $2,316 million.
The highlight of the half was the 22% reduction in operating expenses to $5,534 million. This means that ANZ has now achieved 49% of its gross cost savings target of $800 million in FY 2026.
This underpinned a 51% increase in profit before provisions to $5,670 million for the half.
Provision charges came in at $274 million, compared to $296 million in the previous half. This includes a $175 million charge for the potential impacts of the Middle East conflict.
On the bottom line, ANZ reported a cash profit of $3,780 million for the half. This was a sizeable increase of 70% on the second half of FY 2025.
But despite this profit jump, the bank has elected to pay an interim dividend of 83 cents per share, which is in line with the final dividend of FY 2025. ANZ's interim dividend will be 75% franked and is scheduled to be paid on 1 July.
'Transformation is running at pace'
ANZ's CEO, Nuno Matos, was pleased with the performance. He said:
This half year result demonstrates three things. First, our transformation is running at pace, and we are making good progress in executing our five immediate priorities safely, sustainably, and on time. Second, in parallel, we are investing in line with our ANZ 2030 strategic initiatives, to deliver for our customers, accelerate growth and outperform the market beyond 2027. Third, importantly we are already delivering materially better returns for shareholders.
Commenting on the profit jump, Matos adds:
Our half year cash profit of $3.78 billion was up 14% on the previous half, when excluding significant items, as we simplified our business and reduced duplication and settled long-standing regulatory matters. Importantly, we saw an improvement across all key financial metrics compared with the second half of 2025. This includes return on tangible equity which rose to 11.6% and a cost to income ratio at 49.4%. An interim dividend of 83 cents per share, with franking rising from 70% to 75%, was driven by an improvement in the Australian geography performance.
