A Year Later: The Stock I Sold (And Wish I Hadn’t)

Selling a stock can feel smart in the moment. Maybe the gain looks good, the headlines feel noisy, or you just want something “safer.” But a year later, the better question is not whether the stock went up, but whether the reason you sold actually changed. When looking back, investors should check if revenue, earnings, balance-sheet strength, and long-term demand stayed intact.

If the business kept improving while the share price merely bounced around, that can be a painful clue that the sale came too early. Right now, there’s one I sold way back when that perhaps I wish I hadn’t.

AC

Air Canada (TSX:AC) is still the country’s dominant airline, with a business that reaches far beyond domestic travel. It flies passengers across Canada, into the United States, and across the Atlantic and Pacific, while also leaning on Aeroplan, cargo, and vacation packages to widen its revenue base. Airlines are emotional stocks. Investors often sell when travel sentiment cools, even when the company itself keeps building.

Over the last year, Air Canada stock has given investors plenty of reasons to feel nervous and plenty of reasons to stay put. The messy part came from labour tension. A flight attendant strike in August 2025 disrupted service and pushed the company to withdraw guidance, reporting a $375 million hit to operating income from those disruptions. Then in February 2026, an arbitrator upheld a wage deal that lifted flight attendant pay by more than 20% over four years, which should remove some uncertainty even if it also raises costs.

At the same time, Air Canada kept acting like a company planning for growth, not survival. It rolled out fast, free Wi-Fi beginning in May 2025 for Aeroplan members on many North American and sun-destination flights, expanded winter routes deeper into Europe and Latin America in January 2026, and disclosed an order for eight Airbus A350-1000 aircraft in February 2026, with options for eight more. Those are the moves of a carrier betting that premium and international demand still have room to run.

Into earnings

The numbers back that up. Air Canada finished 2025 with full-year net income of $644 million, diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.86, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $3.1 billion, and free cash flow of $747 million. In the fourth quarter alone, revenue reached a record $5.8 billion, while quarterly net income came in at $296 million, or $1 per share. For a company that many investors still talk about as if it is permanently fragile, those are sturdy results.

Valuation is where the regret can really kick in. Air Canada stock has a market cap of about $5.2 billion and a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) of about 8.8. That is not the kind of multiple investors usually pay for a company still posting billions in EBITDA and guiding for more growth. Air Canada expects 2026 adjusted EBITDA between $3.35 billion and $3.75 billion, capacity growth of 3.5% to 5.5%, and free cash flow of $400 million to $800 million. So the stock still looks priced more like a question mark than a proven operator.

The outlook is not perfect, and that is exactly why the stock fits this theme. Domestic demand has shown signs of cooling, U.S. trans-border travel has softened, and labour and aircraft-delivery issues could pressure costs in 2026. Inflation tied to labour agreements and delayed aircraft deliveries may weigh on unit costs. But international bookings, premium travel, and overseas corporate demand have remained resilient, giving Air Canada stock a real engine for growth if execution holds up.

Bottom line

A year later, the stock you miss most is often the one you sold for emotional reasons while the business kept doing its job. Air Canada stock is not risk-free, and airlines never are. But if you sold it because the path looked bumpy, only to watch earnings improve, expansion continue, and valuation stay cheap, that sting makes sense. Sometimes the real lesson is simple. A rough ride is not always the same thing as a broken thesis.

The post A Year Later: The Stock I Sold (And Wish I Hadn’t) appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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More reading

• 5 Canadian Stocks Worth Buying Today and Holding for the Next 5 Years
• 3 Canadian Stocks That Look Cheap for a Reason (And Why That’s OK)
• 1 Cheap Canadian Stock Down 66% to Buy and Hold
• A Year Later: 3 TSX Stocks That Proved the Doubters Wrong
• Is Air Canada Stock a Buy After Falling 8.4% This Year?

Fool contributor Amy Legate-Wolfe has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Air Canada. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.