# Woolworths Group (WOW.AU)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/WOW.AU

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:34:13.239Z. Financial observations: FY1997–FY2026.

Listing currency: AUD. Reporting currency: AUD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: AUD 41.28 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 1 revenue decline in the last 10 years (informational)

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 1

- Years with a net loss: 0

- Operating margin variation: 0.53×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: 0.04×

- FY2018: 0.04×

- FY2019: 0.04×

- FY2020: 0.04×

- FY2021: 0.05×

- FY2022: 0.04×

- FY2023: 0.04×

- FY2024: 0.02×

- FY2025: -0.02×

- FY2026: 0.04×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- Recent gross margin fell 5.2pp below the typical margin (limit 4pp)

- ROIC, median of available years: 11.5%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: 4.6%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 5.2 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 28.9%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 23.8%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 3.7%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -3.0%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: 21.7%

- FY2018: 22.7%

- FY2019: 20.7%

- FY2020: 6.1%

- FY2021: 15.7%

- FY2022: 10.3%

- FY2023: 11.0%

- FY2024: 4.6%

- FY2025: -3.9%

- FY2026: 12.0%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: -0.99×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: AUD -5.3B

- Net income, five-year total: AUD 5.4B

- Return on incremental invested capital: >100%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -0.0 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: -0.1 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: -1.0%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2022: -0.61×

- FY2023: -0.44×

- FY2024: -19.36×

- FY2025: -1.02×

- FY2026: -0.51×

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2017 to 2026 (9 years)

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks leaned toward cheaper years (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: 21.7% vs 4.6%

- Per-share earnings: 1.31 to 0.78 (three-year endpoint medians)

- per-share value declined or ends nonpositive

- acquired goodwill and intangibles (proxy) exceeds half of ten-year net income with low and deteriorating ROIC

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: -0.4%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: -0.2%

- Market cap gain: AUD 21B

- Cumulative retained earnings: AUD -3.8B

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: -0.4%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: -0.2%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2017

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2026

- Per-share value growth: -6.2%

- Per-share value change: AUD -0.53

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: AUD 1.31

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: AUD 0.78

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): 0.63

- Average buyback yield: 1.2%

- Buyback history: 9 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- Acquisition spending: AUD 7.1B

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: AUD 13B

- ROIC, first three-year median: 21.7%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 4.6%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: AUD 1.18

- FY2018: AUD 1.31

- FY2019: AUD 1.18

- FY2020: AUD 0.92

- FY2021: AUD 1.67

- FY2022: AUD 1.22

- FY2023: AUD 1.33

- FY2024: AUD 0.09

- FY2025: AUD 0.78

- FY2026: AUD 0.92

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -11.2%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 0.96×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 0.0%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 4.35×

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.94×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -6.9%

- FY2018: -5.4%

- FY2019: -6.1%

- FY2020: -8.8%

- FY2021: -6.5%

- FY2022: -5.5%

- FY2023: -8.4%

- FY2024: -12.5%

- FY2025: -10.6%

- FY2026: -11.2%

## Holders

## Price story

Up 17% since Oct 2023 · "Woolworths Group (ASX:WOW) Is Down 9.9% After Cutting Margin Guidance Amid Rising Cost Pressures" (finance.yahoo.com, May 2026) · sales +3.6%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:59.663Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2025-06-27: Australia's Woolworths to close MyDeal customer website to cut losses ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/australias-woolworths-close-mydeal-customer-002935367.html))

- 2025-08-26: Australia's Woolworths posts weaker than expected sales, shares plunge ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/australian-grocer-woolworths-posts-19-225740396.html))

- 2025-09-08: Woolworths, Coles flags extra costs after staff underpayments ruling ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/australias-woolworths-coles-warn-extra-001226422.html))

- 2026-05-03: Woolworths Group (ASX:WOW) Is Down 9.9% After Cutting Margin Guidance Amid Rising Cost Pressures ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/woolworths-group-asx-wow-down-191316417.html))

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales +3.6%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2017: AUD 55B 

- FY2018: AUD 57B 

- FY2019: AUD 60B 

- FY2020: AUD 53B 

- FY2021: AUD 56B 

- FY2022: AUD 61B 

- FY2023: AUD 64B 

- FY2024: AUD 68B 

- FY2025: AUD 69B 

- FY2026: AUD 72B 

### Gross margin · FY2026

gross margin 23.8%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2017: 28.9% 

- FY2018: 29.3% 

- FY2019: 29.1% 

- FY2020: 28.9% 

- FY2021: 29.3% 

- FY2022: 29.7% 

- FY2023: 26.7% 

- FY2024: 27.3% 

- FY2025: 27.2% 

- FY2026: 23.8% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in grocery stores; annual sales are AUD 71.5 billion.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:13.239Z); FY2026: revenue 71539000000; grossProfit 16999000000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); WOW.AU: Woolworths Group Limited operates retail stores in Australia and New Zealand. It operates through Australian Food, Australian B2B, New Zealand Food, W Living, and Other segments. The Australian Food segment procures and resells food and related products; and provides services to customers in Australia. Its Australian B2B segment engages in procurement and distribution of food and related products for resale to other businesses, as well as provision of supply chain services to business customers in Australia. The New Zealand Food segment is involved in the procurement of food, drinks, household essentials and related products; and provides services to retail customers in New Zealand. Its W Living segment procures general merchandise products and pet products for resale through eCommerce and marketplace platforms to retail customers in Australia and New Zealand. The Other segment operates Quantium and various support functions. The company was formerly known as Woolworths Limited and changed its name to Woolworths Group Limited in December 2017. Woolworths Group Limited was incorporated in 1924 and is based in Bella Vista, Australia.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 23.8% to 27.3% during 2024–26; it earns 11.5% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:13.239Z); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 27.3%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:13.239Z); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 27.2%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:13.239Z); FY2026: grossProfit / revenue = 23.8%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:13.239Z); 10-year return on capital observations [[2017,0.21740617117399128],[2018,0.22706375579137936],[2019,0.20715091413196698],[2020,0.06074135553297783],[2021,0.15682372463593802],[2022,0.10292670372155407],[2023,0.11026130640457525],[2024,0.046221278449308505],[2025,-0.03902457848295877],[2026,0.11984759401942252]]; median 0.1150544502119989. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 10 of 10 years; bought back AUD 85 million of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:13.239Z); FY2017: growth capex 217311328.1088562; upkeep 1692688671.8911438; owner earnings 878811328.1088562. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.24727870608643132.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:13.239Z); FY2018: growth capex 303252989.7684388; upkeep 1544747010.2315612; owner earnings 1282252989.7684388. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.23650012297745007.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:13.239Z); FY2019: growth capex 470539748.99148273; upkeep 1520460251.0085173; owner earnings 1193539748.9914827. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.3942388591490811.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:13.239Z); Dividend observations: [[2017,562400000],[2018,780000000],[2019,1318000000],[2020,1199000000],[2021,1154000000],[2022,1449000000],[2023,1031000000],[2024,1188000000],[2025,1664000000],[2026,1100000000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:13.239Z); FY2026: cash repurchases 85000000 AUD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 0.2% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); WOW.AU SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 0.196 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 0.7 times annual sales; cash earnings are negative.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:13.239Z); Closing price 41.28 AUD; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2026 annual sales per share 58.08021660635165; price multiple 0.710741150980584. FY2026 cash earnings/share -0.4677982751866789. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (AUD per share)

- 2016-10: AUD 20.03 per share

- 2016-11: AUD 19.39 per share

- 2016-12: AUD 20.42 per share

- 2017-01: AUD 20.84 per share

- 2017-02: AUD 21.82 per share

- 2017-03: AUD 22.45 per share

- 2017-04: AUD 22.77 per share

- 2017-05: AUD 22.07 per share

- 2017-06: AUD 21.63 per share

- 2017-07: AUD 22.62 per share

- 2017-08: AUD 22.02 per share

- 2017-09: AUD 21.36 per share

- 2017-10: AUD 21.92 per share

- 2017-11: AUD 22.80 per share

- 2017-12: AUD 23.13 per share

- 2018-01: AUD 22.83 per share

- 2018-02: AUD 23.39 per share

- 2018-03: AUD 22.27 per share

- 2018-04: AUD 23.60 per share

- 2018-05: AUD 24.11 per share

- 2018-06: AUD 25.85 per share

- 2018-07: AUD 25.49 per share

- 2018-08: AUD 23.97 per share

- 2018-09: AUD 23.79 per share

- 2018-10: AUD 24.08 per share

- 2018-11: AUD 24.50 per share

- 2018-12: AUD 24.92 per share

- 2019-01: AUD 24.88 per share

- 2019-02: AUD 24.29 per share

- 2019-03: AUD 25.75 per share

- 2019-04: AUD 26.98 per share

- 2019-05: AUD 26.57 per share

- 2019-06: AUD 28.15 per share

- 2019-07: AUD 30.17 per share

- 2019-08: AUD 31.99 per share

- 2019-09: AUD 31.58 per share

- 2019-10: AUD 31.61 per share

- 2019-11: AUD 33.68 per share

- 2019-12: AUD 30.63 per share

- 2020-01: AUD 35.44 per share

- 2020-02: AUD 32.87 per share

- 2020-03: AUD 29.73 per share

- 2020-04: AUD 30.28 per share

- 2020-05: AUD 29.94 per share

- 2020-06: AUD 31.58 per share

- 2020-07: AUD 32.77 per share

- 2020-08: AUD 33.77 per share

- 2020-09: AUD 30.86 per share

- 2020-10: AUD 32.33 per share

- 2020-11: AUD 31.33 per share

- 2020-12: AUD 33.30 per share

- 2021-01: AUD 34.61 per share

- 2021-02: AUD 33.38 per share

- 2021-03: AUD 34.62 per share

- 2021-04: AUD 33.29 per share

- 2021-05: AUD 35.26 per share

- 2021-06: AUD 38.13 per share

- 2021-07: AUD 38.76 per share

- 2021-08: AUD 41.75 per share

- 2021-09: AUD 39.35 per share

- 2021-10: AUD 38.08 per share

- 2021-11: AUD 40.82 per share

- 2021-12: AUD 38.01 per share

- 2022-01: AUD 34.42 per share

- 2022-02: AUD 35.49 per share

- 2022-03: AUD 37.26 per share

- 2022-04: AUD 38.51 per share

- 2022-05: AUD 34.65 per share

- 2022-06: AUD 35.60 per share

- 2022-07: AUD 37.52 per share

- 2022-08: AUD 36.09 per share

- 2022-09: AUD 33.95 per share

- 2022-10: AUD 33.02 per share

- 2022-11: AUD 34.47 per share

- 2022-12: AUD 33.56 per share

- 2023-01: AUD 36.08 per share

- 2023-02: AUD 36.92 per share

- 2023-03: AUD 37.90 per share

- 2023-04: AUD 38.83 per share

- 2023-05: AUD 37.54 per share

- 2023-06: AUD 39.73 per share

- 2023-07: AUD 38.62 per share

- 2023-08: AUD 38.13 per share

- 2023-09: AUD 37.32 per share

- 2023-10: AUD 35.22 per share

- 2023-11: AUD 34.90 per share

- 2023-12: AUD 37.20 per share

- 2024-01: AUD 36.01 per share

- 2024-02: AUD 32.62 per share

- 2024-03: AUD 33.17 per share

- 2024-04: AUD 31.90 per share

- 2024-05: AUD 31.60 per share

- 2024-06: AUD 33.79 per share

- 2024-07: AUD 34.50 per share

- 2024-08: AUD 35.68 per share

- 2024-09: AUD 33.30 per share

- 2024-10: AUD 29.96 per share

- 2024-11: AUD 30.18 per share

- 2024-12: AUD 30.49 per share

- 2025-01: AUD 30.46 per share

- 2025-02: AUD 30.01 per share

- 2025-03: AUD 29.55 per share

- 2025-04: AUD 31.57 per share

- 2025-05: AUD 31.85 per share

- 2025-06: AUD 31.11 per share

- 2025-07: AUD 31.51 per share

- 2025-08: AUD 28.80 per share

- 2025-09: AUD 26.70 per share

- 2025-10: AUD 28.41 per share

- 2025-11: AUD 29.32 per share

- 2025-12: AUD 29.38 per share

- 2026-01: AUD 30.94 per share

- 2026-02: AUD 36.00 per share

- 2026-03: AUD 36.41 per share

- 2026-04: AUD 34.39 per share

- 2026-05: AUD 35.23 per share

- 2026-06: AUD 40.03 per share

- 2026-07: AUD 39.77 per share

- 2026-08: AUD 40.31 per share

- 2026-09: AUD 39.20 per share

- 2026-10: AUD 39.67 per share

## Annual estimated value (AUD per share)

- FY2017: low AUD 7.94 per share, central AUD 9.04 per share, high AUD 10.50 per share

- FY2018: low AUD 8.25 per share, central AUD 9.37 per share, high AUD 10.86 per share

- FY2019: low AUD 8.92 per share, central AUD 10.16 per share, high AUD 11.79 per share

- FY2020: low AUD 8.69 per share, central AUD 9.78 per share, high AUD 11.23 per share

- FY2021: low AUD 7.82 per share, central AUD 8.90 per share, high AUD 10.34 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.