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If you'd invested in: BHP Billiton and Medica Group
Mining giant BHP Billiton has seen its share price more than double since the beginning of 2016, while radiology services provider Medica has seen its own price plunge.
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.
Be glad you didn't buy...
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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Join more than 165,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with latest financial news, insights and expert analysis to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
Join more than 165,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with latest financial news, insights and expert analysis to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
Join more than 165,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with the latest financial news, insights and expert analysis to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
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.
Alice is now Consumer Editor at The Sun and covers everything from energy bills to Social Security.
