This Little-Known Stock Rallies 149% to Take Australia's No. 1 Spot

By

Jackie Edwards

May 8, 2019, 5:00 AM GMT+10

Australia’s best-performing stock is flying high in more ways than one.

Shares in Nearmap Ltd., which provides aerial images and location data that allow businesses to conduct virtual site visits, have surged 149 percent this year, making it the biggest gainer on the benchmark index. The cloud-based company was added to Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index last month.

Its strong performance “is a reflection of years of investment in market-leading technology that is now translating into strong growth in subscription revenue,” said Mason Willoughby-Thomas, a portfolio manager at Ausbil Investment Management, whose fund owns shares of the company.

Nearmap sells subscriptions to access high-resolution images that cover most of Australia and the U.S. Customers include construction firms viewing progress at a site remotely, or governments trying to work out emergency response plans for a particular area.

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