Guess how many ASX 200 stocks have outperformed CBA?

Just 28. That’s the sobering reality facing Australian equity investors over the past 12 months.

This statistic reveals the extraordinary dominance of Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA), with a staggering 86% of ASX 200 constituents failing to match its performance. For stock pickers focused on large caps, it's a humbling reminder that simply buying and holding CBA would likely have beaten most other investment strategies.

What makes this performance particularly intriguing is CBA's seemingly bubble-like valuation metrics. The bank trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of approximately 33x, offers a yield below 2.5%, and faces forecasts of minimal growth over the next two years. Yet somehow, this "overpriced" stock has managed to outpace 86% of the market.

Who Made the Cut

The 28 stocks that did manage to beat CBA came from a relatively diverse range of sectors:

• Materials: 9
• Industrials: 4
• Financials: 4
• Technology: 4
• Healthcare: 3
• Discretionary: 3
• Real Estate: 1

Notably absent were any outperformers from Telecommunications, Consumer Staples, Energy, or Utilities. While these sectors briefly rallied around Trump's April 3rd Liberation Day tariff announcement, their gains quickly faded on the reciprocal tariff pause and ongoing trade talks. Even the recent Israel-Iran conflict has failed to bring flows back into these defensive pockets of the market.

Taking A Closer Look

Mining stocks dominated the outperformer list, accounting for nearly one-third of CBA's challengers. Soaring gold prices proved to be the great equaliser, with companies like Regis Resources (+156%), Genesis Minerals (+137%), Spartan Resources (+118%), and Evolution Mining (+117%) seeing their valuations more than double over the past twelve months.

A diverse range of industrials also found their groove:

• Austal (+141%) rode the defence spending wave, with potential acquirer Hanwha recently receiving US regulatory approval to increase its stake to 100%
• Qantas (+72%) capitalised on robust travel demand, delivering a solid first-half result that included both a base dividend ($250m) and special dividend ($150m)
• Brambles (+60%) became a consistent outperformer after beating expectations in both its FY24 and first-half FY25 results, driven by strong pricing power and asset productivity initiatives
• Computershare (+52%) maintained its upward trajectory, with first-half FY25 results in February sending the stock 15% higher to record levels

The Financials stocks beating CBA weren't banks but instead names like Generation Development Group (+118%), Zip (+108.5%), Hub24 (+84.4%) and Insignia (+57.2%).

The top ten outperformers include:

Data as at Wednesday, 25 June close.

And the rest:

Data as at Wednesday, 25 June close.

At the Sector Level

At the sector level, the dominance becomes even more pronounced. Every single S&P/ASX 200 sector has underperformed Financials over the past twelve months. Technology was slightly ahead on Tuesday, but slipped on Wednesday largely due to Xero's capital raising-related selloff.

Data as at Thursday, 27 June