The share market has been a great place to invest your money over the last five years. During this time the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has delivered an average return of approximately 7.1% per annum.
This means that a $10,000 investment in the index five years ago would have grown to be worth just over $14,000 today.
Whilst this is a solid return in such a short space of time, it pales in comparison to some of the returns that have been made on the market.
The following seven shares have beaten the market by some distance over the period:
The A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M) share price has been trading on the ASX for just under four years. If you'd picked up $10,000 worth of shares in April 2015 at 56 cents, that investment would have grown to be worth $247,000 today.
The Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) share price has provided a total return of approximately 74.1% per annum over the last five years. This would have turned a $10,000 investment into $160,000.
The Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price has been trading on the ASX since January 2015. If you picked up $10,000 worth of the shares of the developer of high-quality, human annotated datasets that month for 63 cents, that investment would now be worth $373,000.
The Bellamy's Australia Ltd (ASX: BAL) share price has been a big mover since hitting the ASX boards in August 2014. So much so, a $10,000 investment in the infant formula company's shares that month would now be worth a cool $66,000.
The Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX: CUV) share price has provided investors with an average total return of 74.9% per annum over the last five years. This means that a $10,000 investment in the pharmaceutical company's shares five years ago would be worth almost $164,000 today.
The Nanosonics Ltd (ASX: NAN) share price has been a strong performer over the last five years, providing shareholders with an average total return of 37.1% annum. This would have turned a $10,000 investment in the infection control specialist's shares five years ago into $48,500 today.
The Pro Medicus Limited (ASX: PME) share price has provided investors with a staggering average annual return of 81.9% per annum over the last five years. Which means $10,000 invested in the healthcare technology company's shares would have grown to be worth $199,000.
Foolish Takeaway.
Whilst returns of this nature are reasonably rare, they do happen, and I feel confident in five years we'll be looking back at another group of shares that have done the same.
The key will be finding these shares before they take off.
