The FTSE 250 isn’t just home to quality growth stocks. It’s also a great place to find dividend shares, with plenty offering higher yields and stronger payout growth than many FTSE 100 stocks.
With hundreds of companies spanning different industries and parts of the world, it’s possible to build a strongly performing portfolio with FTSE 250 shares alone. An ISA investor who put a £20,000 lump sum into a tracker fund when the index started in the early 2000s would now have £134,670 in their account. That’s based on an annual average return of 8.7%.
That’s a pretty decent return. But could investors have done better? Absolutely. Pan African Resources (LSE:PAF) and Allianz Technology Trust (LSE:ATT) are two mid-cap stocks that have outperformed the broader FTSE 250 over the past five years. And I’m confident they’ll keep delivering spectacular returns, as I’ll explain.
Gold medallist
Pan African Resources’ success story has been determined by the soaring gold price. It’s delivered a stunning average annual return of 52.5%, as the yellow metal has punched repeated highs over several years.
Can gold keep appreciating following recent choppiness? I’m confident it can, as inflation rises and geopolitical and economic uncertainty grows. Morgan Stanley is forecasting a price of $5,200 per ounce in the second half, as reported by The Economic Times, even as interest rates likely rise. That’s up by around 500 bucks from today’s levels.
Buying gold stocks is a leverage play on the metal. When bullion rises, share prices even rise more sharply. The trouble is this effect works in the opposite way too, so investors should be aware Pan African could dive if metal values reverse.
That said, the company’s low valuation could help limit the scale of any decline if the worst does happen. Pan African’s shares trade on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 8.3 times.
A top trust
Allianz Technology Trust’s delivered an average yearly return of 15.5% over a five-year horizon. Its objective is “to achieve long-term capital growth by investing principally in… quoted technology companies on a worldwide basis”.
Primarily, though, the trust is focused on North America — a whopping 91% of its holdings are shares in US-listed companies. This means exposure to the technology sector’s leading players such as Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple. Their strong records of innovation and deep pockets bode well for the trust looking ahead, though this does mean more concentration risk from a geographical view.
On a more encouraging note, the trust is well spread by sub-sector. Software, semiconductors, communications, and consumer electronics help protect against weakness in one or two areas.
Can they keep rising?
Previous form doesn’t guarantee future returns. However, I’m confident Pan African Resources and Allianz Technology shares can keep outperforming the broader FTSE 250.
If they can reproduce the returns of the past five years, they could turn £20,000 invested in an ISA today into £106,921 by May 2031.
