Commonwealth Bank: Is Australia’s largest bank now a growth stock?
CBA shares surged 7 per cent on its results on Wednesday and its stunning customer growth rates over the second half of 2025 mean it could be right to consider it a growth stock.
Stunning growth in the number of retail customers for Commonwealth Bank helped the lender lift its dividend 4.4 per cent to $2.35 per share for the six months ending December 31.
Shares surged 7 per cent to $171.10 at lunchtime as analysts were wowed by its success in capturing new customers that helped deliver higher-than-expected revenues and protect its profit margins.
The bank said it added 585,000 net retail customers over the past year to take its total customer numbers to 12 million in a result that suggests it’s capturing a significant share of Australia’s booming immigrant population. Its business bank also grew lending volumes 12 per cent versus the prior year at 1.3 times the rate of its rival lenders.
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“You’ve seen huge growth [in the number of transaction accounts]” over the final quarter of 2025, Barrenjoey analyst Jon Mott told management before asking if this was likely to support its profit margins over the second half of 2026.
“I think there’s a bit of seasonality for sure,” said chief executive Matt Comyn in reply, before skirting around the issue of whether it will improve profit margins.
However, all the data shows retail customer growth is valuable to a bank as the new customers’ cash deposits are used to fund its loans at higher-than-normal profit margins.
The higher returns translate into higher dividends for shareholders and the bank’s success capturing new customers is a key reason why CBA stock has nearly doubled in value over the past four years.
Thursday’s profit report revealed CBA now funds 79 per cent of its lending from retail customer deposits. This compares to an average among 70 per cent for its Australian banking peers. While back in 2008 CBA funded just 57 per cent of its operations from retail deposits.
The higher ratio in 2026 means not only is CBA growing its customers and revenues faster than its rivals, but also growing or defending its profit margins more efficiently.
This is another reason why the stock’s price has nearly doubled over the past four years and absolutely thumped the modestly-growing returns of rivals Westpac, NAB, and ANZ Bank.
Fast dividend growth
CBA’s potent mix of customer and sales growth with robust profit margin protection has also allowed it to consistently outpace its rivals’ dividend hikes and explains why analysts rate the stock so highly.
Four years ago, over the financial year to June 30, 2022, CBA paid total dividends of $3.85 per share. The market expects it will lift that amount by around 30 per cent to pay $5 per share over the 12 months to June 30, 2026.
By comparison, NAB has lifted its total dividends from $1.51 per share in FY 2022 to $1.70 per share over FY 2025 on a growth rate of just 12.5 per cent. ANZ has lifted its dividends from $1.46 per share in FY 2022 to $1.66 in FY 2025 on a growth rate of 13.7 per cent.
Shares prices will follow earnings and dividends higher over the medium term and CBA’s share price outperformance proves this out.
Its success attracting new customers is largely based on investments in digital technologies that offer the best apps, user experiences (UX) and user interfaces (UI). Others, like ANZ via its ANZ Plus App have tried to keep up, but still offer UX or UI versus the dominant winner.
CBA’s success capturing customers is also boosting its core home loan business.
UBS analyst John Storey pointed out to the bank’s management that it grew total new business home loan volumes 24 per cent half-on-half from $85 billion to $105 billion between June and December last year.
How sustainable is this exceptional growth rate asked Mr Storey?
“Well it remains to be seen,” replied chief executive Mr Comyn. “But I think we executed well in the period and we’re certainly planning to continue to do that.”
Analyst and investor adoration for the bank’s success in growing its customer base mean the stock now offers an estimated dividend yield of just 2.9 per cent on the estimate it will pay $5 per share over the 12 months to June 30.
In effect, CBA is now the first global bank viewed as a growth stock. And some will argue that’s the correct view given its stunning customer growth rates.
