WDS Heads Into Earnings With Bulls Holding the Upper Hand

Woodside Energy Group reports its quarterly results on November 4 with positioning broadly constructive, though the lending market and options activity suggest investors are not rushing to take sides.

The borrow market is loose, which tells a low-conviction short story. Availability is running at 216%, meaning there are more than twice as many shares available to lend as are currently borrowed. That figure has loosened noticeably over the past week, up around 5%. Cost to borrow has also eased recently to 1.59%, though it remains about 27% above where it was a month ago, a reminder that demand for borrows did pick up through October. Short interest itself is negligible for a company of this size, with short sellers holding roughly 3.4 million shares, a figure that has barely moved in the past month. There is no meaningful short-side pressure heading into the print.

Options traders are similarly relaxed. The put/call ratio is 0.10, almost exactly in line with its 20-day average of 0.096, giving a z-score near zero. That is far closer to the bullish end of the 52-week range, which has run as low as 0.04 and as high as 0.30. Calls dominate the options book by a wide margin, consistent with a name where the primary debate is about upside from energy pricing rather than downside protection.

The analyst recommendation score ranks in the 92nd percentile across the universe, a strikingly strong consensus reading. The earnings surprise factor is more modest at the 34th percentile, meaning the Street has often set the bar high enough that beats have been harder to land. The most recent dividend history adds a further income angle: Woodside has paid two AUD-denominated dividends in 2026, the most recent announced in August, and dividend quality scores at the 62nd percentile. For an LNG-weighted producer where yield is part of the investment case, the payout trajectory is as watched as any growth metric.

The earnings history warrants attention. Three of the four most recent events produced a negative first-day move, with the sharpest single-session decline running to about 6%. Five-day reactions have been mixed, with the August event recovering to roughly flat after an initial drop. The pattern is consistent with a stock where the print itself tends to disappoint relative to intraday expectations, even if medium-term fundamentals reassert quickly. With price up 8.5% over the past month but slipping a fraction on the week, the November 4 release tests whether that recent move has outpaced what the quarter's underlying volumes and realisations can justify.