Rolls-Royce shares are on track for their fourth straight year of gains. But the 20.7% share price return over the last 12 months is nowhere near as explosive as previous years.

Indeed, there are 32 FTSE 100 stocks that have done better over the past year (excluding takeover deals), according to Hargreaves Lansdown. The standout winners have been Computacenter that’s up 91.1%, Lion Finance (LSE:BGEO) up 68%, Ithaca Energy up 65.7%, and Glencore up 63%. 

Old-school energy firms and miners have done well, including BP (+50%), Shell (+46.1%), Anglo American (+37%), Rio Tinto (+33%), Antofagasta (+26.2%), and Endeavour Mining (+23.4%).

Most big banks and financial services companies have also outperformed Rolls-Royce over the past year too — Standard Chartered (+50.9%), HSBC (+44.9%), Lloyds (25%), NatWest (+21.7%), Standard Life (+40.3%), Hiscox (+38.3%), Legal & General (+25%), and M&G (+21.6%). 

Motley mix

The other 15 are a motley mixture of different shares. For context, the FTSE 100 is up about 14.7% over this period: 

Looking at this, I’m struck by the sheer diversity of gains across multiple sectors. In contrast, the best performing shares in the S&P 500 in the last 12 months are nearly all AI-related technology and energy companies.

Interestingly, Rolls-Royce’s rival GE Aerospace is only up about 4.4% in this time. Both engine makers have faced pressure in recent weeks from rising fuel costs and the Middle East conflict.

Economic boom

Zooming in on Lion Finance (formerly Bank of Georgia), this is an interesting stock on the list. It was promoted to the FTSE 100 in March after a barnstorming few years. It’s up almost 700% in five years, with rising dividends on top.

Together with TBC Bank, the lenders control the lion’s share — no pun intended — of the banking sector in Georgia. This is the fast-growing economy that lies between Europe in the West and Asia and China in the East.

Georgia has benefited from skilled migrants and businesses relocating from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The capital Tbilisi is also enjoying a tourism boom — it was recently named the world’s second-most trending destination for 2026 by Tripadvisor.

All this has driven impressive growth, with Lion Finance’s revenue increasing at a compound annual rate of 32% over the past five years. Profits have risen even quicker, alongside a more than doubling of the annual dividend.

Inevitably, growth will moderate moving forward. But City analysts still expect earnings per share to grow 12% this year and 14% in 2027. This puts the forward P/E ratio at just seven, which seems low.

Plus, despite the massive share price rally, there’s still a well-covered 3.6% prospective dividend yield.

Political risk

There’s a lot to like about this stock, in my opinion, and I’m lamenting selling it two years ago. What was I thinking?

Well, hindsight is 20/20 of course, but back then I was worried about the disputed parliamentary vote in Georgia. This sparked huge demonstrations that threatened to boil over into something more ugly.

Since then, there have been sporadic protests, but they’ve largely fizzled out. There has been no notable impact on either the economy or Lion Finance.

That might change in future, meaning there’s political risk attached to this bank stock. But with strong economic growth expected in both Georgia and Armenia (the lender’s second market), I reckon Lion Finance is worth digging into.

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Ben McPoland owns shares in HSBC, Rolls-Royce, and Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust.