Canopy Growth Stock Is Down 69% Over the Past Year: Can It Ever Recover?

Let’s dive into what key factors drove Canopy Growth’s (TSX:WEED) recent decline, and whether a recovery is in order.

Key Points
  • The Canadian cannabis sector faces challenges with declining stocks, as seen with Canopy Growth, which has dropped nearly 70% over the past year amid fundamental weaknesses and revenue declines.
  • While potential U.S. regulatory changes could benefit the cannabis industry, the Canadian market's investment difficulty suggests a cautious focus on U.S. producers potentially benefiting from legalization.

The cannabis sector has undoubtedly become one of the most frustrating sectors for growth investors in recent years. Indeed, many of the top cannabis producers Canada brought forth to the publicly traded markets have fallen considerably from their 2017–2019 levels, as investors looked toward other high-growth areas of the market for outsized upside.

Canopy Growth (TSX: WEED) is one such company, declining nearly 70% over the past 12 months.

Let’s dive into what’s behind this decline and whether investors should expect a recovery or not moving forward.

Pot stocks are a riskier investment

Image source: Getty Images

Fundamental weakness continues

To be fair, I cautioned investors during the past two rallies that the underlying fundamentals of companies like Canopy didn’t justify those moves. That was the correct directional view.

However, I’ve also begun to explore more recently how and why another cannabis bubble could form. The Trump administration is reportedly looking at reclassifying marijuana as a less-dangerous drug, and that would be good for the industry as a whole. But the question, as has always been the question for Canada-based cannabis producers, is whether the U.S. market will be open to imports in this sector.

Given the current trade backdrop with the U.S., most investors would be right to be skeptical of such a view. As such, investors are now stuck with assessing the growth rates of cannabis usage domestically and what the Canadian cannabis market looks like moving forward.

What does the future look like, then?

Well, Canopy’s overall revenue declined for its fiscal year 2025 by nearly 10%. That’s a big move down, signalling that demand for legal weed could be declining rather than increasing, at least in Canopy’s home market.

With its net loss growing 25% over the same timeframe and an unfavourable market for refinancing or issuing shares, this is a stock that’s in a pot of hot water at the moment.

Until and unless something drastic happens on this front, I think investors’ best bets are to focus on U.S. producers that may benefit from legalization or some form of regulatory easing in this sector south of the border. The Canadian cannabis market appears to be too difficult to invest in right now, in my view.

Fool contributor Chris MacDonald has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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