Sydney, February 24, 2026, 16:56 AEDT — The session wrapped up, market now closed.
CSL Ltd closed down 1.5% on Tuesday at A$145.13, slipping from an open of A$148.10 before ending the day on the session’s low. The stock has now dropped 5.3% across the last two sessions.
The drop adds to the strain on CSL, one of Australia’s largest healthcare firms, as fund managers puzzle over what counts as a “normal” trading day for the stock now. Buyback activity holds steady; volatility, though, hasn’t let up.
CSL posted an 81% plunge in first-half profit earlier this month, hit by softer blood plasma and vaccine sales plus some one-off charges. The company named director Gordon Naylor as interim CEO following Paul McKenzie’s exit. Naylor told analysts, “not prepared to accept that we can’t do better.” Citi analysts flagged that CSL’s guidance leaves almost no room for mistakes, with Behring set to shoulder most of the second-half recovery. Reuters
The S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.04% by the close.
CSL picked up 83,760 of its own shares on Monday, shelling out A$12.46 million at prices ranging from A$147.18 up to A$153.62 apiece, according to the daily ASX disclosure. That brings the total buyback to around 3.54 million shares—about A$667 million so far—under its ongoing on-market program, which is capped at US$750 million and set to finish June 30.
Buybacks might boost earnings per share by cutting the share count, but they won’t do anything for demand or pricing in the core business. Right now, investors are locked in on the pace of recovery at CSL’s plasma unit and watching if vaccines and Vifor keep dragging on performance.
Here’s the risk: weaker plasma volumes or pricing, especially in the U.S. or China, would make the company’s hoped-for second-half rebound tough to pull off. If vaccine sales don’t pick up, or generics continue to pressure iron-deficiency and kidney drugs, shares could stay stuck where they are.
Markets shut, traders now look ahead to Wednesday. Eyes are peeled for movement in buyback activity, plus any updates on the CEO hunt. CSL still hasn’t set a timeline for that search.
The interim dividend is the next big milestone. CSL has announced a payout of US$1.30 per share, with the ex-dividend date falling on March 10. Buyers picking up shares from that day miss out on this distribution. The record date is March 11, and shareholders can expect to see the payment hit accounts on April 9. CSL will lock in the Australian-dollar equivalent on March 13.
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