Wise (WSE) Stock Jumps 8% as Margins Beat and $500M Buyback Lands

TLDR

• Wise stock rose 8% after FY26 profit margins beat the company’s own guidance range
• Income before tax came in at $660.4 million, with a 26.4% margin — above the 20–25% guided range
• Net revenue grew 19% year-on-year to $2.50 billion
• Wise launched a $500 million share repurchase program for FY27
• Active customers grew 21% to 19 million; cross-border volume jumped 31% to $243.5 billion

Wise (WSE) stock jumped roughly 8% on Friday after the payments company posted full-year results that beat expectations on profit margins and followed up with a $500 million buyback announcement.

Wise Group plc Class A Ordinary Shares, WSE

The stock was trading around 894p on the London Stock Exchange earlier in the day, up 64 points.

Wise reported net revenue of $2.50 billion for the year ended March 31, 2026, up 19% year-on-year. Income before tax came in at $660.4 million, giving a margin of 26.4%.

That margin sits above the company’s own medium-term guidance range of 20–25%, which caught the market’s attention.

BofA analysts, who rate the stock a buy with a price target of $16.40, said profit before tax came in 6.6% ahead of their own estimate and 1.3% ahead of consensus.

The analysts flagged a $70 million one-off U.S. GAAP adjustment on foreign exchange related to certain government bonds as the main drag on operating income, which landed at $590.7 million.

Active customers grew 21% to 19 million. Cross-border volume climbed 31% to $243.5 billion, while the cross-border take rate held at 0.52%, down six basis points year-on-year.

Card spend grew 37% to $43.6 billion. Customer holdings rose 40% to $39.0 billion — a sign that more users are keeping money on the platform for everyday use, not just transfers.

Transaction revenue came in at $1.89 billion. Net interest income contributed $609.2 million to net revenue after paying out $196.9 million in interest to customers.

CEO Kristo Käärmann highlighted that 75% of payments in Q4 were completed in under 20 seconds globally — a stat the company leans on hard in its competitive pitch.

Buyback and Capital Returns

Wise said it plans to spend over $500 million on share repurchases in FY27. Around 40% of that will go toward its recurring Employee Share Trust program to offset dilution from share-based compensation.

The company separately allocated $470 million to repurchase 35.9 million shares during FY26.

BofA raised its FY27 earnings per share estimate by 5.7% to 54.34 cents diluted, pointing to better gross profit margins and the buyback as the drivers.

FY27 Outlook

For the year ahead, Wise guided for net revenue growth around the middle of its 15–20% medium-term target range, on a constant currency basis.

That guidance assumes no material change in interest paid to customers and no material shift in central bank rates.

Income before tax margin is expected to come in around the top of the 20–25% range for FY27.

Wise completed its move to a Nasdaq primary listing on May 8, with a secondary listing kept on the London Stock Exchange.

The company said it added new direct payment connections in Brazil and Japan during FY26 and picked up new license approvals in South Africa, the UAE, and Thailand.

New Wise Platform partners added in the year include UniCredit, Raiffeisen Bank, and MBSB Bank, with Capitec joining in April 2026.

The post Wise (WSE) Stock Jumps 8% as Margins Beat and $500M Buyback Lands appeared first on CoinCentral.