Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) shares were flying high in 2023 before having their wings clipped in the second half of the year.
This ultimately meant that the airline operator's shares ended the period with a decline of almost 11% for the period.
What happened to Qantas shares in 2023?
The Flying Kangaroo's shares were among the strongest performers on the ASX 200 last year until falling from grace.
At one stage, they were up over 15% year to date to a 52-week high of $5.94.
Investors were fighting to get hold of its shares after it returned to profit during the first half and reported a record half-year result.
For the half, Qantas achieved a $1.43 billion underlying profit before tax, which was 49% higher than the prior first-half record result it achieved in FY 2018.
This was driven by consistently strong travel demand, higher yields, and cost improvements from its $1 billion recovery program.
However, all that was forgotten several months later when the company couldn't stay out of the news for all the wrong reasons. This includes selling seats on cancelled flights, illegal sackings, and a backlash over sky-high ticket prices.
This negative news flow ultimately led to its CEO, Alan Joyce, stepping down from the role ahead of schedule and its chair, Alan Goyder, reportedly being booed and heckled at the company's annual general meeting.
This put significant pressure on Qantas shares and led to them giving back their gains and some more.
Is this a buying opportunity?
The team at Goldman Sachs thinks that investors should be buying the company's shares.
The broker currently has a conviction buy rating and $8.25 price target on them, which implies a potential upside of 56% for investors. It commented:
[W]e believe QAN is not priced for a generic recovery, let alone prospects for improved earnings capacity. We continue to see upside associated with substantially improved MT earnings capacity and include QAN in our regional Conviction List.
