Key Takeaways
- SNDK reached an all-time high of $807.99 during Wednesday’s session, climbing almost 10%
- Bernstein elevated its price target to a Wall Street-leading $1,250 from a previous $1,000
- Analyst Mark Newman presented an optimistic scenario projecting SNDK could potentially hit $3,000
- Shares have climbed approximately 2,000% in the past twelve months amid soaring NAND pricing and artificial intelligence demand
- Newman’s Q4 earnings projection of $25.30 per share significantly exceeds the consensus estimate of $18.78
SanDisk has emerged as a market leader throughout 2026. Following Wednesday’s nearly 10% surge that elevated shares to an unprecedented $807.99, SNDK maintained its position around the $800 threshold during Thursday’s pre-market session.
The rally coincided with Bernstein’s Mark Newman upgrading his price objective on the memory chip manufacturer to a Wall Street-leading $1,250 from $1,000, while maintaining his Outperform recommendation and designating it his preferred near-term investment.
Newman’s optimistic stance centers on rapidly escalating NAND flash memory pricing. His analysis projects SanDisk will deliver adjusted earnings per share of $14.18 for the fiscal third quarter concluding in March, marginally exceeding both the $13.99 analyst consensus and the company’s guided range of $12–$14.
His fourth-quarter projection reveals the most compelling story. Newman anticipates Q4 EPS will reach $25.30 — substantially above Wall Street’s $18.78 estimate — propelled by an anticipated 40% quarter-over-quarter increase in average selling prices.
Shares have now climbed approximately 2,000% during the trailing twelve months, powered by escalating NAND pricing and robust demand from artificial intelligence data facilities. Despite this meteoric rise, Newman contends the market continues undervaluing the company’s profit-generating capability.
He observes SNDK presently trades at merely 9x consensus forward earnings, beneath the 10–13x range observed during previous upcycles. When measured by price-to-earnings relative to the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, it stands at 0.5x compared to its historical 0.8–1.0x range.
Bernstein’s Optimistic Projection: $3,000 Target
In a more bullish framework, should NAND pricing climb 75% across each of the coming two quarters — compared to the 55% and 40% incorporated in Bernstein’s baseline forecast — Newman projects June-quarter EPS could reach $40.53, yielding full fiscal 2027 EPS of $224.
This scenario supports an optimistic valuation of $3,000, utilizing a 13x earnings multiple consistent with SanDisk’s historical peak-cycle valuations. Such a target would represent approximately 280% appreciation from present trading levels.
The baseline $1,250 target applies an 11x multiple to projected average earnings spanning fiscal years 2026–2029, which Newman estimates at $114 per share.
Artificial Intelligence Requirements and Supply Chain Positioning
SanDisk’s enterprise solid-state drives have become integral components in AI infrastructure deployments, with company leadership confirming complete allocation of products extending well into 2026. This supply constraint provides substantial pricing leverage, even amid potential input cost increases.
Morgan Stanley recently designated SNDK among its preferred selections for the year’s second half, highlighting 61% revenue expansion and characterizing this as the beginning of an extended AI infrastructure investment cycle.
Shares experienced roughly a 19% decline earlier this year following Google’s introduction of TurboQuant, a memory-compression algorithm that initially concerned NAND investors. Newman dismissed these worries, clarifying the technology targets high-bandwidth memory utilized in AI inference applications and carries minimal implications for NAND’s core storage function.
Newman maintains that NAND pricing commenced its meaningful ascent only six to seven months ago, with the industry remaining fundamentally undersupplied.
Aggregate Wall Street consensus registers as Moderate Buy, featuring 11 Buy recommendations and 3 Hold ratings issued during the previous three months. The mean price objective of $771.54 trades marginally below current valuation.
SanDisk is scheduled to announce fiscal Q3 financial results on April 30.
