Compared to alternative investments, CSL has been a significant...

Compared to alternative investments, CSL has been a significant opportunity cost for going on five years.

As for "it's outperformed the market over 12 months", that's a nothing statement because a big chunk - around 25% - of what constitutes "the market" in Australia is the resources sector, which has been pummelled this year months due to contraction in industrial production in Europe, the the US economy closing in on recessionary levels, and property market woes in China.

So really, the more meaningful way to gauge CSL's relative share price performance against its major peers, namely COH and RMD.

On that score, COH has outperformed CSL by ~25% over the past 12 months and even RMD's share price has done better, despite that company suffering from a perception that a new breed of drugs might be some kind of existential threat to its business.