Published: 24 December 2025
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) shares are heading into the Christmas break with two forces tugging in opposite directions: a fresh burst of regulatory-and-reputation scrutiny after the bank agreed to new “goodwill” payments tied to excessive-fee findings, and a valuation debate that refuses to die while the stock still trades at a premium to peers.
On 24 December, investors are essentially asking one big question in different costumes: does the market keep paying top dollar for Australia’s biggest bank, or does the valuation gravity win in 2026?
CBA share price today: where Commonwealth Bank stock sits on 24 December
CBA stock was quoted around A$161.39 on 24 December, according to price data carried by Intelligent Investor (sourced from Morningstar). The same data set shows CBA is up about 5.5% over calendar 2025, after hitting a high near A$192 earlier in the year. [1]
That context matters because “CBA is down” and “CBA is expensive” can both be true at once:
- From the A$192 peak to ~A$161, the share price has fallen roughly 16%, but it’s still higher than where it started the year. [2]
- The stock’s 52‑week range has been wide for a mega-cap bank—roughly A$140 to A$192—showing how sensitive sentiment has been to rates and valuation narratives. [3]
In short: CBA hasn’t crashed; it’s de-rated a bit. The market is now fighting over whether that de-rating is “enough.”
The headline risk driving fresh attention: CBA’s A$68 million “goodwill” payments after ASIC fee review
The most concrete CBA-specific news dominating the final full trading week before Christmas is the bank’s decision to make additional payments following ASIC’s work on high-fee accounts affecting low-income customers.
CBA said it will begin making further goodwill payments of approximately A$68 million in early February 2026 to “relevant concession customers” who incurred unusually high fees, and that eligible customers don’t need to do anything because the bank will contact them. [4]
CBA also said its total goodwill payments connected to ASIC’s reporting will rise to ~A$93 million, including ~A$25 million already paid following ASIC’s earlier reporting focused on Indigenous consumers. [5]
Public coverage of the backflip has been blunt:
- ABC reported that ASIC’s review found customers were incorrectly charged a total of A$270 million in fees, and that CBA’s move covers only part of the amount flagged. [6]
- AAP similarly reported the A$68 million figure, early‑February timing, and noted ASIC’s comment that banks have now committed to about A$160 million in refunds for people on low incomes. [7]
Why the market cares (even if the dollars look “small” next to profit)
Purely in earnings terms, A$68 million is unlikely to move the needle for a bank that reported A$10.25 billion in full-year cash earnings in FY25 (year ended 30 June 2025). [8]
So investors tend to treat this less as an EPS story and more as a risk narrative story:
- Regulatory pressure risk: when a bank is already priced richly, any perception of growing regulatory friction can compress the multiple investors are willing to pay.
- Reputation/franchise risk: CBA’s premium is partly built on “best-in-class” brand and execution assumptions. Headlines that question fairness and treatment of vulnerable customers can chip at that story.
- Political risk: issues involving fees on concession accounts are politically combustible, and that can keep the topic alive longer than markets expect.
That’s why this is landing on screens right as investors are re-checking valuation.
Why valuations are back in focus: “stretched” multiples and a market rotation away from banks
On 24 December, ABC’s markets coverage flagged that Australia’s major banks were facing “stretched valuations,” with bank shares softer even as other parts of the market were influenced by commodities and currency moves. [9]
That lines up with a broader broker narrative: as the easy money from the last rerating cycle fades, investors become less forgiving of anything that could dent the “quality premium.”
A separate note that has been doing the rounds in market commentary: Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a Sell, arguing CBA’s strong run over the last 18–24 months was driven heavily by P/E (price-to-earnings) expansion—reported as around 28x—and that the premium versus peers and global banks is hard to sustain if earnings are broadly flat as rates fall and credit growth cools. [10]
This is the core valuation bear case in one sentence:
If earnings growth is only modest, a premium multiple becomes harder to defend—especially if rates and competition pressure margins.
Analyst forecasts for Commonwealth Bank shares: price targets point to downside from current levels
Here’s the uncomfortable fact for bulls: many consensus price targets sit well below where CBA shares trade today.
As of 24 December:
- Investing.com’s consensus shows 14 analysts with an average 12‑month price target around A$121.62, with estimates spanning roughly A$99.81 to A$146, and a consensus stance labelled “Strong Sell.” [11]
- TipRanks shows a similar pattern: an average target around A$118.76, also tagged “Strong Sell” (0 buy / 0 hold / 9 sell in its displayed sample). [12]
- TradingView’s compilation likewise points to a target around A$124.37 with a broadly “strong sell”-leaning rating summary. [13]
Why would the market price be so far above targets?
This gap is not unheard of for CBA. The stock often trades like a “bond with a brand”: investors pay extra for perceived safety, stability, and consistency, even when targets imply downside.
But the gap becomes politically (and psychologically) harder to ignore when:
- there’s a credible risk of margin compression, and
- the bank is hit with headline risk (like the fee story), and
- investors have other places to hide (materials, industrials, defensives) during a rotation. [14]
The macro backdrop for 2026: rates, margins, housing and competition
For Australian banks, the big macro lever is still the same old wizard behind the curtain: the interest rate path.
ABC’s reporting around Christmas highlighted that the RBA’s December board minutes left the door open to a hike, and noted market pricing implying a non-trivial chance of a rate increase at the 3 February 2026 meeting, with upcoming quarterly inflation data in late January a key input.
For CBA stock, rates cut both ways:
- Higher rates can support net interest income (up to a point) but may increase stress on borrowers and reduce credit demand.
- Lower rates can stimulate credit growth and reduce bad debts, but often come with more intense competition and tighter margins—especially if deposit pricing becomes aggressive.
That margin-and-competition theme showed up clearly in Reuters reporting on CBA’s first-quarter update in November, where the bank pointed to increased competition and lower interest rates hurting key margins even as profit edged up. [15]
Translation: even if the economy stays “fine,” investors will keep obsessing over net interest margin direction—because when a stock is expensive, the market demands perfect execution.
What to watch next for CBA shares: the February results catalyst and the “premium test”
Between now and the first big 2026 checkpoints, CBA is likely to trade on three overlapping storylines:
1) February 2026: payments begin, and the fee issue stays in the headlines
CBA says the A$68 million in goodwill payments will start in early February 2026. That timing means the issue could linger into the same window as earnings season, when investors are already twitchy. [16]
2) 11 February 2026: next earnings report (and a reality check on margins)
TradingView’s event calendar flags 11 February 2026 as the next earnings date. [17]
That result doesn’t need to be “bad” to pressure the stock. With CBA, the market often reacts to smaller signals:
- margin trend versus expectations
- deposit competition commentary
- cost growth (especially tech and compliance spend)
- arrears/credit quality tone
- capital management hints (buybacks/dividend trajectory)
3) The premium question: can CBA keep trading “above consensus”?
The premium can persist for long periods—until it doesn’t. Goldman’s argument is basically that the June 2025 high may have been the “high-water mark” for the rerating cycle, and that rotation plus modest earnings growth makes the multiple vulnerable. [18]
Meanwhile, retail-market commentary has already started framing the pullback toward A$160 as either a “sanity check” or a potential re-entry point—depending on whether you believe CBA’s competitive moat is enduring enough to justify paying up. [19]
Bottom line: Commonwealth Bank stock heads into 2026 with a strong franchise—and a fragile valuation narrative
On 24 December 2025, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia share story looks like this:
- The stock price is holding around A$161, still up for the year but well off the June peak. [20]
- The biggest fresh headline is the bank’s plan to begin ~A$68 million in goodwill payments in early February after ASIC scrutiny of excessive fees affecting low-income customers, lifting total related goodwill payments to ~A$93 million. [21]
- Analyst consensus targets (roughly A$118–A$125 depending on the compilation) generally imply meaningful downside from current levels and skew heavily negative on ratings. [22]
- Macro and margin dynamics—especially the rate path and competitive intensity—remain the key swing factors for whether the premium multiple survives 2026. [23]
For investors, the setup is simple but not easy: CBA’s franchise quality is widely respected, but the valuation leaves little room for surprises—especially headline surprises.
References
1. www.intelligentinvestor.com.au, 2. www.investing.com, 3. www.investing.com, 4. www.commbank.com.au, 5. www.commbank.com.au, 6. www.abc.net.au, 7. aapnews.aap.com.au, 8. www.reuters.com, 9. www.abc.net.au, 10. www.investing.com, 11. www.investing.com, 12. www.tipranks.com, 13. www.tradingview.com, 14. www.investing.com, 15. www.reuters.com, 16. www.commbank.com.au, 17. www.tradingview.com, 18. www.investing.com, 19. www.fool.com.au, 20. www.intelligentinvestor.com.au, 21. www.commbank.com.au, 22. www.investing.com, 23. www.reuters.com
