If you'd invested in: Dialight and Pearson

If only...

Dialight (LSE: DIA) makes industrial LED lighting, specialising in the hazardous and heavy industrial markets. Poor performance saw the company demoted from the FTSE 250 in December 2013. It suffered a series of profit warnings, and the share price fell steadily till it bottomed out in early 2016. A new CEO and restructuring of the business have seen the shares rise strongly since then, climbing by more than 100% in the last year.

Be glad you didn't

Industrial lighting-maker Dialight has had a bright year, while educational publisher Pearson is down in the dumps.

Pearson (LSE: PSON) is an educational-resource company, publishing course materials and carrying out exam assessments. Around 60% of its sales come from the US. It has been selling assets, including the FT newspaper and a chunk of publisher Penguin Random House, to invest in education. Investors remain unconvinced by its strategy and the shares have fallen by more than 30% in the last year.

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