It certainly has been a great 12 months for the Australian share market. Since this time last year the S&P/ASX 200 index has carved out a gain of approximately 7% excluding dividends.
If you include dividends into the equation, this return stretches to around 11% over the period.
Whilst this is a great return, especially in this low interest rate environment, some shares on the benchmark index have performed even better.
Here's why these three shares have more than doubled in value since this time last year:
The Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) share price has zoomed a massive 212% higher over the last 12 months. The buy now, pay later platform provider's shares have been on fire thanks to its highly successful expansion into the United States market. Afterpay has made great strides in the United States and looks to be replicating its Australian success in a market many times bigger. In addition to this, its upcoming launch in the United Kingdom has caught the eye of investors, who believe it could be the next driver of growth.
The Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price has risen a sizeable 138% since this time last year. Investors have been snapping up the shares of the global leader in the development of high-quality, human annotated datasets for machine learning and artificial intelligence since the release of an impressive full year result in February. Due to the accelerating AI market and the high and growing demand for quality training data, Appen delivered a 153% increase in underlying EBITDA to $71.3 million in FY 2018. The good news is that this strong form looks set to continue with management appearing confident that it will deliver another bumper profit result this year.
The Nearmap Ltd (ASX: NEA) share price has been the best performer on the ASX 200 over the last 12 months with an impressive 253% gain. The aerial imagery technology and location data company's shares have charged higher thanks to a strong FY 2018 result and an even stronger half year result in FY 2019. In the first half of the financial year the company achieved revenue of $36.3 million, which was a 46% increase on the prior corresponding period. It also reported a massive 123% increase in total subscriber lifetime value to $1.07 billion. Looking ahead, this key metric could be given another lift if the company can successfully execute its plan to expand into other countries.
