If you'd invested in: BHP Billiton and Medica Group

published 1 June 2018

If only...

BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT) is an Anglo-American mining, metals and petroleum company headquartered in Australia. Its share price has more than doubled since the beginning of 2016. In August last year, the firm reported a surge in annual profits, up from $1.2bn to $6.7bn, as it benefited from a 32% rise in iron ore prices, as a result of greater demand from Chinese steelmakers. It also slashed net debt by nearly $10bn from $16.3bn. Earlier this year, the mining giant reported a 25% rise in underlying half-year profit to $4.05bn, and handed an extra $800m to shareholders.

Medica Group (LSE: MGP) provides radiology services in the UK. Its share price plunged at the start of the year as it warned that full-year results would be "slightly behind market expectations", which it partly blamed on capacity constraints. Despite positive annual results since, the shares have not recovered. For 2017, Medica reported an 18.2% rise in group revenue, as its NightHawk out-of-hours remote radiologist service delivered sales growth of 24.1%. This contributed to a 51% jump in adjusted profit after tax to £7.52m, up from £4.98m for 2016.

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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.