Buy, Sell... Buy again? 3 stocks worth another look

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”

Those are the words of Heraclitus. For the Greek philosopher, it embodied the theory of flux - the idea that change is the fundamental nature of reality. It’s also an apt metaphor for the stock market.

The decision to invest in a stock on any given day is relative to the rest of the market, the company’s underlying fundamentals and a million other variables. Just look at the threat of AI for software companies and how the SaaSpocalypse has played out.

Regardless of whether or not a company was insulated against AI disruption, as Forager portfolio manager Alex Shevelev succinctly puts it: “The sell-off across the technology sector was indiscriminate.”

Yet some investors feel as though walking away from a position is akin to giving up on a company. After all, there was a reason you invested in it to begin with, so if you sold off the entire holding, that conviction must have changed. Reinvesting after that kind of a shift might become a difficult hurdle.

But that doesn’t have to be the case. If you consider the stock market the same way Heraclitus conceptualised the river, then every stock pick is a point-in-time decision.

You’re not investing in the same stock, just as you would not be stepping foot in the same river. The market has moved on and changed, and any investment decisions should be based on the landscape as it is, not how it looked when you exited the stock.

In this wire, I asked Shevelev and Fidelity portfolio manager Maroun Younes about stocks that they had exited before buying back and what changed to make the investment thesis viable again. 

Alex Shevelev, Forager

Catapult Sports (ASX: CAT)

Catapult is a global leader in technology used by professional sporting teams, including athlete wearables and video analysis. This is a business with high-quality low-churn recurring revenue, growing quickly, with a strong market position globally.

For a professional club spending tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on players, Catapult’s average annual customer spend of roughly US$30,000 per team is relatively immaterial. Yet the technology can help improve performance and reduce injuries, providing a competitive advantage. Its specialist data and integrated hardware and software also make it difficult to replace.

What prompted the sale and in hindsight was it the right decision?

The sale of our Catapult investment was driven purely by valuation. Catapult’s share price rose well above $7 and its market value exceeded $2 billion after it was added to the ASX200. That index inclusion created price-insensitive buying and gave the Fund an attractive opportunity to exit its remaining shares.

Catapult still had a promising future, but the share price was already reflecting a very optimistic outcome. We had barely changed our assessment of the company’s potential during our holding period. 

In hindsight, the decision looks sensible. Catapult’s share price subsequently more than halved from its peaks, allowing us to buy the company back at a much more attractive valuation.

What led to the buy-back?

The sell-off across the technology sector was indiscriminate. Catapult’s products sit inside professional sporting organisations’ workflows. They combine specialist hardware, software, data and industry knowledge, and cost little relative to the value they provide. Following the fall in valuation, we bought back into Catapult. It was the Fund’s second-largest investment by June.

What is the outlook?

The long-term opportunity remains very attractive. Catapult continues to deliver on growth in its core wearables business. After completing a few acquisitions, the business now has more products to cross-sell into its existing clients. And impressive operating leverage has continued.

Bravura Solutions (ASX: BVS)

Bravura provides mission-critical software to wealth managers and superannuation funds. Its systems support essential administration and reporting functions where errors or downtime are unacceptable. Customers rarely turn the software off, and moving to another system can take years.

The appointment of Andrew Russell as CEO brought aggressive cost reductions and a clearer focus on the company’s strategy. All the while, Bravura’s high-quality software revenue continued to grow.

What prompted the sale and in hindsight was it the right decision?

The sale of the Fund’s Bravura investment also came down to valuation. The share price rose more than 250% from the Fund’s initial investment as cash generation recovered and the company returned capital to shareholders.

We sold when the valuation became stretched, even as the pace of the turnaround exceeded expectations. In hindsight, this sale also appears well timed. As the wider technology sell-off accelerated, Bravura subsequently nearly halved from its October 2025 high.

What led to the buy-back?

We believe the market has underestimated the difficulty and risk of replacing their deeply embedded financial administration systems. Bravura’s clients operate in regulated industries with little tolerance for system failure. While AI makes software development cheaper, migrating data and workflows to a new provider remains expensive, disruptive and time-consuming. By June, it too had returned to the Fund’s five largest investments.

What is the outlook?

At Bravura, strong demand for project services and further cost-outs have led to continued earnings upgrades. The business is likely to continue to return excess capital to shareholders while looking closely at accretive acquisitions.

Maroun Younes, Fidelity

We owned the business for several years before exiting the position around 18-24 months ago. Following a pullback in the share price, we have taken the opportunity to re-establish a position.

Arthur J Gallagher (NYSE: AJG)

At an industry level, insurance brokerage is an attractive business because revenue tends to be recurring and relatively resilient to economic cycles. At a company level, AJG has consistently demonstrated its ability to grow organically at rates above GDP while generating strong free cash flow.

The company has also successfully reinvested capital into bolt-on acquisitions that enhance growth and create shareholder value. When we initially purchased the stock, it was trading on a free cash flow yield of around 7%, generating returns on equity in the mid-teens and capable of compounding earnings per share at low double-digit rates over the medium term.

Combined with a modest dividend yield of around 1.5%, we believed the business was well positioned to deliver forecast total shareholder returns in the mid-teens.

What prompted the sale and in hindsight was it the right decision?

While we have some flexibility around the timing of exits, the stock had enjoyed several years of above-average growth and its valuation multiples had expanded significantly. Given those factors, we decided to exit the position.

In hindsight, the decision proved reasonable. Although the share price continued to rise initially after we sold, the insurance cycle subsequently softened, and the stock eventually traded comfortably below our exit price.

What led to the buy-back?

However, our research suggests those fears are overstated. While OpenAI approved the first AI-powered application from an insurance provider, Tuio, its use case relates to home insurance, which is relatively standardised.

AJG, by contrast, predominantly serves corporate and enterprise clients, where insurance needs are far more complex and highly customised. These relationships require specialist advice and tailored solutions, making the business significantly less vulnerable to AI-driven disintermediation.

What is the outlook?

The company is also proactively implementing AI across its own operations, which we expect to support productivity gains and margin expansion over time. Together, these factors should enable AJG to compound earnings per share at a mid-teens CAGR over the next two to three years.

Importantly, the stock is currently trading at valuation multiples below its long-term historical averages, which we view as an attractive entry point for a business of this quality, resilience and growth profile.

Managed Fund

Forager Australian Shares Fund

Australian Shares

View

Managed Fund

Fidelity Global Future Leaders

Global Shares

View