Investors who bought these S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) shares this time last year will be rejoicing today.
Each of these companies has seen its share price more than double since 12 April 2020.
Let's look at what's been driving these top-performing ASX 200 shares.
3 ASX 200 shares outperforming
News Corporation (ASX: NWS)
This time last year, the News Corporation share price closed at $15.16. Today this ASX 200 share is trading for $32.45, an increase of around 114% over the last 12 months.
News Corp has battled through the last year, arguably coming out the other side stronger.
Through the coronavirus pandemic, the media giant continued to post generally sturdy results.
It weathered a Facebook-induced storm when the platform blocked all Australian news. News Corp quickly struck a deal with the social media giant to protect its ability to publish news on the platform.
It even managed to pay its shareholders the same dividend as it did in 2020.
News Corp has a market capitalisation of around $1.1 billion, with approximately 590 million shares outstanding.
Virgin Money UK (ASX: VUK)
A year ago today, this ASX 200 share was trading for $1.67. While the Virgin Money share price has seen its share of volatility since, it's come out fighting. Today, Virgin Money shares are swapping hands for $3.49. That represents a 110% gain over the last 12 months.
Virgin Money shares have been driven higher by the company's strong results over the past year. Each quarter, Virgin Money released stable, predictable results. This may well have been a welcome relief to ASX investors through what has been a pretty unpredictable period.
Virgin Money has a market capitalisation of around $3.1 billion, with approximately 1.4 billion shares outstanding.
EML Payments Ltd (ASX: EML)
This time 12 months ago, EML shares were trading at $2.64. Since then, this ASX 200 share has gained 118% and is now trading for $5.78 at the time of writing.
EML offers a wide variety of payment services, including salary packaging cards, commission payouts, gift cards and rewards programs.
It posted strong results throughout the 2020 financial year, as well as completing a number of acquisitions.
EML has a market capitalisation of around $2 billion, with approximately 361 billion shares outstanding.
