Sydney, 15 December 2025 — Macquarie Group Limited (ASX:MQG; ADR: MQBKY) entered the final full trading weeks of the year with investors juggling three big storylines at once: a near-term dividend payment, a capital-management program that can keep soaking up stock, and a debate about whether the group’s earnings engine is merely “between cycles” or structurally cooling. [1]
On the tape, the day was mildly negative. Macquarie shares finished around A$200.2 on 15 December, down roughly 0.7%, after trading between ~A$199.38 and ~A$202.93. [2]
Beneath that modest move is a more interesting question: what is the market paying for Macquarie right now—stable profitability and optionality, or a return to the “glory days” of high-teens returns? Reuters Breakingviews recently argued some shareholders may still be pricing the past. [3]
Macquarie share price today (ASX:MQG): what happe
n
ed on 15 December 2025?
Macquarie Group shares ended the session at about A$200.23 (Investing.com’s recorded close), with an opening price near A$201.50, and volume recorded around 366.66K shares. The session’s range ran from A$199.38 (low) to A$202.93 (high). [4]
Zooming out, Investing.com lists Macquarie’s 52-week range at roughly A$160.00 to A$242.90, and notes a ~11% decline over the past year. [5]
Macquarie’s market profile remains “big, liquid, widely owned”: Investing.com lists market cap around A$75B, a P/E around ~12, and a trailing dividend yield shown around ~3–4% (figures vary with price and trailing dividend totals). [6]
The next catalyst: Macquarie’s December dividend hits this week
For near-term investors, the calendar is doing some of the talking.
Macquarie’s investor dividend page shows a 1H26 interim dividend of A$2.80 per share (35% franked) with:
- Ex-dividend date: 17 November 2025
- Record date: 18 November 2025
- Payment date:17 December 2025 [7]
Macquarie’s own 1H26 results announcement also reaffirmed the A$2.80 interim dividend and stated it represented a 64% payout ratio, within the firm’s stated 50–70% annual payout ratio policy. [8]
That matters for the stock in two ways:
- Income support: In a market that frequently “pays up” for reliability, the dividend can act like a psychological floor—until it doesn’t.
- Flow effects: Macquarie indicated shares are acquired on-market to satisfy the Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP) for that interim dividend, a detail that can influence near-term trading dynamics around payment and reinvestment timing. [9]
What’s the latest fundamental story? Macquarie’s 1H26 results set the tone
Macquarie’s most recent major company update remains its half-year (1H26) results released in November.
Key headline figures from Macquarie’s announcement include:
- 1H26 net profit:A$1,655 million, up 3% vs 1H25 and down 21% vs 2H25
- Assets under management (AUM):A$959.1 billion at 30 September 2025
- Annualised ROE:9.6% (vs 11.2% in FY25)
- Group capital surplus:A$7.6 billion above regulatory minimum requirements [10]
The segment split is where investors usually find the plot twists:
- Macquarie Asset Management (MAM): net profit contribution A$1,175m, up 43%, driven primarily by higher performance fees. [11]
- Banking and Financial Services (BFS):A$793m, up 22%, supported by home loan and deposit growth, partly offset by margin compression and higher tech expenses. [12]
- Commodities and Global Markets (CGM):A$1,113m, down 15%, reflecting investment in the platform, remediation-related spend, and transaction-related costs; commodities income broadly in line. [13]
- Macquarie Capital:A$711m, up 92%, reflecting higher M&A/brokerage fee income and higher net income on the private credit portfolio. [14]
This is the signature Macquarie pattern: not one engine, but several, and investors are constantly trying to forecast which one is about to hit the next updraft.
Market reaction and the big debate: cyclical dip or the start of a lower-return era?
On the day of the result, Reuters reported Macquarie shares fell sharply after profits came in below expectations, with particular focus on weaker conditions for its markets-facing businesses.
Reuters’ reporting said:
- first-half profit rose year-on-year but was about 12% below market expectations (Visible Alpha consensus),
- CGM profit fell 15% amid low volatility, and
- the stock closed down 5.74% on the day of the report. [15]
Then came the spicier second layer: commentary about valuation versus returns.
Reuters Breakingviews argued Macquarie’s earnings had been “coming back down to earth,” pointing to:
- the 21% decline in bottom line versus the previous half,
- 9.6% annualised ROE, and
- an argument that even after a sell-off, the stock was still valued at more than 2x expected book value, which would be easier to justify if returns were headed sustainably back toward ~20%. [16]
Breakingviews also noted that analysts didn’t expect annual returns to breach 13% over the next two years or more, and contrasted Macquarie’s recent share performance against large US peers. [17]
None of this “breaks” Macquarie’s investment case. It does, however, sharpen the core investor question for 2026:
Is Macquarie a high-quality compounder temporarily stuck in a low-volatility, lower-fee patch… or a firm whose best return profile was a function of a specific pre-2023 market regime? [18]
Capital returns: Macquarie’s buyback is still a meaningful lever
Macquarie’s 1H26 announcement included a continuation of shareholder returns beyond dividends: the board approved an extension of an up to A$2 billion on-market buyback for a further 12 months. [19]
As of 6 November 2025, Macquarie said:
- A$1,013 million of ordinary shares had been acquired on-market
- at an average price of A$189.80 per share. [20]
Buybacks matter most when:
- management believes the stock is undervalued relative to long-term earnings power, and/or
- the firm has excess capital after funding growth and regulatory needs.
Macquarie explicitly framed the extension as flexibility to manage the capital position, noting the buyback can be varied, paused, or terminated depending on conditions and opportunities to deploy capital. [21]
Deal activity: Macquarie Asset Management’s Qube bid keeps M&A in the spotlight
Macquarie isn’t only a “markets and banking” story; it’s also a real assets and private capital story, and that story can generate headlines that affect sentiment.
In late November, Reuters reported that Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) made a buyout bid for logistics group Qube Holdings, describing:
- a cash offer of A$5.20 per share
- implying an enterprise value of A$11.6 billion (including debt)
- with an exclusivity period ending 1 February 2026 for due diligence and a potential binding offer. [22]
Reuters Breakingviews later framed the potential Qube transaction—alongside another large take-private deal—as helping rescue a soft year for Australian M&A, noting Macquarie among advisers connected to the transaction ecosystem. [23]
For MQG shareholders, the Qube angle has two implications:
- Strategic: It reinforces Macquarie’s continued push into real assets/private markets—one of the group’s most important long-cycle growth avenues. [24]
- Execution risk: Big private-market deals can be value-accretive… or become capital sinks if underwriting assumptions don’t survive the macro cycle.
Credit and balance sheet watch: Fitch keeps Macquarie at “A” with a stable outlook
Banks and financial firms live and die by confidence, and confidence is partly outsourced to credit rating agencies—fairly or not.
A Fitch Ratings update dated 1 December 2025 (hosted in Macquarie’s investor materials) shows:
- Macquarie Group Limited Long-Term IDR:A
- Outlook:Stable [25]
The same update also highlights several themes investors tend to care about:
- Fitch expects MGL’s operating profit in FY26 to be broadly comparable to FY25 (a “steady, not spectacular” message). [26]
- The report references robust capital buffers, including a cited capital surplus to regulatory minimums of A$7.6 billion at 1H26. [27]
For equity investors, ratings don’t directly predict share price—but they can affect funding costs, which can feed into profitability and risk appetite.
Regulatory and governance overhang: ASIC litigation remains part of the backdrop
Macquarie has also spent the past year navigating regulatory scrutiny.
In May 2025, Reuters reported Australia’s corporate regulator ASIC sued Macquarie, alleging misreporting of up to 1.5 billion short sales over many years and described it as a significant escalation, with Reuters noting a maximum possible penalty of A$782.5 million under the relevant framework it cited. [28]
Later reporting around the 1H26 result also referenced Macquarie being in regulators’ crosshairs and noted an agreement in September for repayment to certain investors tied to a collapsed fund accessed via one of its platforms. [29]
For the stock, the mechanism is straightforward:
- Direct: potential financial penalties, remediation, and compliance investment.
- Indirect: reputation and governance risk, which can influence valuation multiples.
Analyst forecasts for Macquarie stock: where do price targets sit as of 15 Dec 2025?
Forecasts are not facts, but they are tradable narratives—especially for widely covered stocks like MQG.
Investing.com’s consensus snapshot (as displayed on 15 December 2025) shows:
- Overall consensus: “Buy”
- Breakdown: 6 Buy, 5 Hold, 1 Sell (poll of the past 3 months)
- Average 12-month price target:A$224.482
- High:A$255
- Low:A$200 [30]
That average target implies roughly low-double-digit upside from the ~A$200 share price level seen on 15 December. [31]
The same consensus page lists examples of broker stances and targets (dates shown on the page), including:
- CLSA Buy with targets in the mid-240s (shown as “Maintain” actions),
- Goldman Sachs Sell with a target around A$207.58 (shown as “New Coverage”),
- Morgan Stanley Hold around A$226, and
- JPMorgan Buy around A$241 (shown as an “Upgrade”). [32]
The spread between A$200 (low) and A$255 (high) is a neat summary of what the market is arguing about:
- the bear case: returns stay subdued; valuation multiple compresses,
- the base case: steady profitability plus dividends/buybacks,
- the bull case: a return to higher volatility and stronger performance fees lifts ROE and sentiment.
Macquarie’s own outlook: cautious tone, many moving parts
Macquarie’s management did not attempt a one-number prophecy. In its 1H26 release, the group said it was maintaining a cautious stance, pointing to factors that could influence the short-term outlook, including:
- global economic conditions, inflation and interest rates, volatility events, and geopolitical impacts
- transaction completion timing and period-end reviews
- geographic income mix and foreign exchange
- potential tax or regulatory changes. [33]
That’s not boilerplate—those inputs map directly onto Macquarie’s diverse earnings model:
- CGM tends to love volatility (up to a point). [34]
- MAM earnings can be boosted by valuation uplift, realizations, and performance fees, but can also face outflows and fee pressure. [35]
- BFS can grow volumes while margins compress in competitive mortgage markets. [36]
- Macquarie Capital depends on deal flow and risk appetite in capital markets. [37]
What Macquarie investors are watching next (late 2025 into early 2026)
Here are the pressure points most likely to matter for Macquarie Group stock from this point:
1) Dividend payment and reinvestment flows (17 Dec 2025)
The dividend is set; now the market watches positioning and any DRP-related on-market purchase mechanics. [38]
2) The buyback’s pace versus the share price
Management has already demonstrated willingness to buy stock around the A$190 level on average. Whether that accelerates, slows, or pauses will signal how Macquarie sees valuation and capital needs. [39]
3) Can markets volatility “come back,” and does CGM rebound?
Reuters highlighted subdued volatility as a headwind for CGM. If volatility rises (commodities, FX, rates), CGM is often one of the first segments investors re-rate. [40]
4) Private markets and performance fee durability
MAM’s jump was powered by performance fees; the question for 2026 is whether that’s repeatable or lumpy. [41]
5) The Qube transaction path to February 2026
The Qube bid has an exclusivity window into early February 2026, and markets will watch for a binding offer, competing interest, and regulatory/process milestones. [42]
6) Litigation and governance headlines
ASIC litigation and other regulatory matters can reappear suddenly, and investors will weigh both the direct costs and the “multiple tax” from uncertainty. [43]
Bottom line: MQG stock on 15 December 2025 is a tug-of-war between quality and nostalgia
Macquarie Group stock closed around A$200.2 on 15 December, a relatively quiet move on the day. [44]
The bigger story is the framing:
- Macquarie is still producing substantial profit and running a diversified platform, while paying dividends and buying back shares. [45]
- Yet, ROE has softened, CGM has faced a low-volatility environment, and commentary has challenged whether the stock’s valuation fully reflects a lower-return reality. [46]
- Analysts, meanwhile, cluster around a mid-220s average 12-month target, with a wide spread that reflects real disagreement about the next phase of the cycle. [47]
Macquarie has always been a company where macro conditions and execution matter more than slogans. The next few weeks add a very practical lens: cash dividends in December, buyback optionality, and a deal timeline into early February. [48]
References
1. www.macquarie.com, 2. www.investing.com, 3. www.reuters.com, 4. www.investing.com, 5. www.investing.com, 6. au.investing.com, 7. www.macquarie.com, 8. www.macquarie.com, 9. www.macquarie.com, 10. www.macquarie.com, 11. www.macquarie.com, 12. www.macquarie.com, 13. www.macquarie.com, 14. www.macquarie.com, 15. www.reuters.com, 16. www.reuters.com, 17. www.reuters.com, 18. www.reuters.com, 19. www.macquarie.com, 20. www.macquarie.com, 21. www.macquarie.com, 22. www.reuters.com, 23. www.reuters.com, 24. www.reuters.com, 25. www.macquarie.com, 26. www.macquarie.com, 27. www.macquarie.com, 28. www.reuters.com, 29. www.reuters.com, 30. www.investing.com, 31. www.investing.com, 32. www.investing.com, 33. www.macquarie.com, 34. www.reuters.com, 35. www.macquarie.com, 36. www.macquarie.com, 37. www.macquarie.com, 38. www.macquarie.com, 39. www.macquarie.com, 40. www.reuters.com, 41. www.macquarie.com, 42. www.reuters.com, 43. www.reuters.com, 44. www.investing.com, 45. www.macquarie.com, 46. www.reuters.com, 47. www.investing.com, 48. www.macquarie.com
