If you'd invested in: Rio Tinto and Tate & Lyle

published 27 April 2018

If only...

Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) is the world's second-largest mining firm. In February this year the firm declared a record final dividend of $1.80 per share and unveiled a $1bn share buyback after higher commodity prices lifted full-year profit. Underlying earnings for the year to 31 December jumped 69% to $8.63bn from a year earlier, broadly in line with analysts' estimates of $8.74bn. Earlier this month it also reported a 5% rise in its first-quarter iron-ore shipments and kept its forecast for aluminium production steady, despite new US sanctions on its Russian partner Rusal.

Be glad you didn't buy...

Tate & Lyle (LSE: TATE) produces ingredients for the food, beverage, and agriculture industries. The firm, which sold its sugar-refining business in 2010, has had a few difficult years amid a price war in the sucralose market and posted three profit warnings between 2014 and 2015. In November last year it reported a 26% increase in first-half profits. Sales of new products are now expected to hit $200m in 2020, up from $69m in 2014. Despite this, analysts are expecting the company's earnings per share to decline over the next two years as the tailwind from weaker sterling vanishes.

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Alice grew up in Stockholm and studied at the University of the Arts London, where she gained a first-class BA in Journalism. She has written for several publications in Stockholm and London, and joined MoneyWeek in 2017.