It has been a mixed year for the broader ASX 200, with the index only just reclaiming positive ground YTD, but underneath the index level there have been some major outperformers that have shone through. As the fourth quarter of the calendar year get’s motoring, it is high time to have a quick look back at the five best stocks on the index this year, with one notable double up.
Codan Ltd (ASX: CDA) leads all comers with a year-to-date gain of 132.08%, pushing it’s market cap to A$12.28B to claim the title of most valuable tech stock on the ASX, outpacing WiseTech Global, Xero, and Technology One to the crown.
Minerals 260 Ltd (ASX: MI6) is next up with 93.02% as Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1) claims the bronze, up 65.38% on the year. The top five is rounded out by Ramsay Health Care Ltd (ASX: RHC), rebounding to sit 56.26% higher after a few difficult years in the market, and Data#3 Ltd (ASX: DTL) completing the list with a gain of 52.43%. Let’s take a closer look at what has driven the outperformance on the year, with the ASX 200 adding a relatively modest 0.63% on the period.
Top Five ASX 200 Stocks of 2026
Codan: Top Performer Adds 50% on Month
Codan’s transformation into a high-growth defense platform has been the major story on the ASX this year, propelling the stock not just to first place in YTD gains, but also in market cap for tech names on the index. The company’s lightweight communications technology is increasingly deployed in combat drones, tactical networks, and unmanned systems, which have seen demand soar.
The stock was already trading 79% higher YTD into late September, but it was at that point where raised guidance for H1 FY27 set Codan shares apart from the rest. The guide for net profit to surge at least 125% year-over-year, combined with evidence of strong organic growth running at approximately 20% outside of direct conflict-driven demand, prompted a wave of buying and multiple earnings upgrades.
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Whilst recent momentum has cooled slightly, allowing the RSI to drop 10 points, the stock remains 50.64% higher over the past month alone, and continues to trade in an overbought area at 75.53. The A$70 handle looks like it will be the next major resistance level, as CDA works through a period of price discovery that has a habit of being volatile.
Minerals 260: Best Resource Stock This Year
Minerals 260 has ridden a powerful combination of high gold prices and strong project execution to sit as the best-performing resource stock on the ASX 200 this year. The company’s flagship 100%-owned Bullabulling Gold Project in Western Australia reached a critical inflection point with the completion of a Pre-Feasibility Study and an updated Mineral Resource Estimate that lifted the total resource to 6.2 million ounces of gold.
The PFS outlined a 5 million tonnes per annum processing operation targeting approximately 150,000 ounces of annual gold production, with first gold targeted for Q4 calendar year 2028.
Critically, the company secured a funding package that combined a A$250 million equity placement with a A$200 million streaming deal with Franco-Nevada. This leaves the company with ~A$250 million in cash to fund the asset through to a Final Investment Decision expected in early CY2027. Bell Potter analysts have maintained speculative buy ratings on the stock with price targets reaching as high as $1.40, whilst the placement price of $0.88 per share has acted as something of a technical anchor in recent weeks.
A 93.02% YTD gain to A$0.83 has also seen the MI6 share price test a new ATH at the psychologically key A$1 level. Whilst the shares now trade 17% off the high, and have recently slipped below the 30 day and 50 day SMAs, the longer trend remains firmly in tact, with the 200 day at A$0.705 rising by the day.
Megaport: Huge Swing From Early Year Weakness
Megaport’s 2026 performance reflects a huge shift in how markets are valuing the company’s capabilities, with the YTD performance the most remarkable turnaround on the index. Having closed the first trading session of 2026 at A$11.90, the MP1 share price was almost perfectly cut in half by mid April, hitting a low of A$5.96. From that point on, the stock added 345% from the 52 week low to high, to sit with gains of 65.38% through the year after meeting resistance above A$22 three times.
What began the year as a Network-as-a-Service provider has evolved into a platform offering bare-metal CPU and GPU compute alongside its established software-defined networking infrastructure. The pivot attracted enterprise customers seeking end-to-end AI inference and compute connectivity solutions, and the results have been commercially significant.
Megaport secured three major AI contracts with a combined total contract value approaching A$1 billion, providing multi-year visibility on Annual Recurring Revenue. The strength of that pipeline prompted management to raise FY27 EBITDA guidance by 25%, a revision that triggered a round of broker upgrades, with Morgans reiterating a Buy rating with a price target of $27.00.
The capital intensity of building out globally distributed GPU infrastructure is significant, and the company has funded expansion through entitlement offers, which have applied some pressure. Nevertheless, holders who survived the early year collapse can be content with holding the best turnaround story on the index this year, and a 65% gain to boot.
Ramsay Health Care: Turnaround Starts To Deliver
Ramsay Health Care’s gain of 56% this year comes amid a genuine improvement in its Australian hospital network, combined with a planned demerger of its European operations. After a few years of pressure that saw RHC shares fall 59% from mid April 2022 into the start of 2026, this year offers some much needed relief for longer term holders.
Recent financials have supported the move, as the company reported a 22.9% jump in underlying net profit after tax to A$364.1 million for FY26, with underlying EBIT rising 11.8% to A$1.162 billion. The full-year fully franked dividend was also raised 13.8% to 91 cents per share., whilst average theatre utilisation across Australian hospitals improved 90 basis points to 70%.
Plenty to like operationally, yet it is the planned demerger of Ramsay’s 52.8% stake in European subsidiary Ramsay Sante that is viewed by markets as a value-unlock event, allowing the group to shed the margin drag of French and European hospital operations, which continue to face zero tariff indexation and persistent wage inflation pressures.
A huge turnaround in sentiment from recent years, and with a supportive technical backdrop that has the stock above the 50 day, and 200 day SMAs. A word for recent momentum, with Monday’s action seeing a test of the 30 day equivalent, and with the RSI cooling from heavily overbought at 80 to a more neutral 54.84.
Data#3: Growth Story Continues, Despite Early Blip
The 52.43% in gains put up by Data#3 shares this year build on what has been a strong long term chart, with 159% added in the past five years. Yet it has not all been one way traffic this year, with the stock down 26.4% through the first quarter of calendar 2026. Since then, DTL has more than doubled, adding 107% off the back of a few major turning points in the financials.
The latest of which came in a strong FY26 print that highlighted the company’s positioning in enterprise cloud migration, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence deployment. Gross sales reached a record A$3.385 billion, up 12.7% year-on-year and meaningfully ahead of the broader Australian IT market’s estimated 8.9% growth rate. EBIT rose 16.6% to A$69.8 million, and net profit after tax grew 13.1% to A$54.5 million.
The growth engine was concentrated in Microsoft Azure public cloud sales, which rose 29%, cybersecurity revenues, which grew 21%, and enterprise AI and Device-as-a-Service deployments, which more than doubled. The company also carries zero debt and generates a return on equity of approximately 57% to 60%, with a fully franked dividend payout ratio exceeding 90%.
A solid intra-year turnaround that continues an impressive long term growth story. The 30.49% jump over the past month of trading has pushed the stock into overbought territory at 73.75, yet bulls continue testing highs, with Monday’s session seeing the level move to A$14.15 before closing out at A$13.78.
Bull Case:
- Codan’s defense contracts drive exceptional margin expansion with ROE exceeding 30%.
- Minerals 260 holds 6.2Moz gold resource with fully funded path to FID.
- Megaport’s A$1 billion AI contract pipeline adds durable, multi-year recurring revenue.
- Ramsay’s demerger of Ramsay Sante unlocks significant embedded valuation for shareholders.
- Data#3’s 70% recurring revenue base and zero debt underpin earnings quality.
Bear Case:
- Codan trades at 41-67x earnings with RSI above 83, signalling overbought conditions.
- Minerals 260 remains pre-production, carrying permitting, construction, and dilution risk.
- Megaport’s GPU infrastructure buildout requires ongoing dilutive capital raises.
- Ramsay Sante faces zero French tariff indexation and persistent European wage inflation.
- Data#3 margins vulnerable to Microsoft vendor incentive program restructuring.
So there you have it. The five top performing stocks may be coming from a range of sectors, but they have all had to deal with varying degrees of momentum tests throughout the first three quarters or so. The recent momentum appears strongest over the past month in the three names moving on tech, as Codan, MP1, and Data#3 all push on. Whether there will be any late movement from those on the edge of this list such as Viva Energy, New Hope, or Telix Pharma, in Q4 could well determine how the top five shape out come year end. But if you are holding any one of these names, you are doing better than most.
YTD returns taken from closing price on opening day of 2026.
