When Western Digital completed the separation of its flash memory Business into standalone SanDisk Corporation in February 2025, the consensus view was that the separation made structural sense but that value realisation would take time. It has not taken time.
SNDK hit an all-time high of $730.02 this week, representing a gain of approximately 1,200 percent since the spinoff completed, a move so large it has attracted comparisons to the most exceptional single-year performances in Nasdaq history and prompted at least one analyst to set a price target of $1,000.
The driver is not complicated: the global AI buildout requires enormous volumes of high-performance NAND flash storage, SanDisk is one of the largest NAND producers in the world, and the supply discipline maintained across the industry since the 2023 downturn has prevented the inventory glut that historically crushes memory prices.
SanDisk’s most recent quarterly earnings report showed revenue of $3.03 billion, beating estimates of $2.67 billion by 13.5 percent, with earnings per share of $6.20 against an expected $3.49, a 77.65 percent earnings surprise that reset analyst estimates sharply upward.
The company’s full-year fiscal 2026 sales are projected to reach $10.45 billion, up 42 percent from $7.36 billion in 2025, with earnings per share expected to grow approximately 350 percent to $13.46, followed by a further 93 percent gain to $25.94 per share in fiscal 2027.
Operating margins have expanded to 34 percent from low double digits during the final years of the Western Digital merger, with free cash flow at record levels and management signalling the potential for a share buyback programme in the second half of 2026.
The “storage wall” thesis is increasingly central to the stock’s valuation: as AI models grow in complexity and the compute bottleneck eases through continued GPU buildout, the constraint shifts to how quickly data can be fed to processors, making high-performance SSD performance the next limiting factor in AI inference economics.
Western Digital, the HDD-focused former parent, has also performed strongly since the split, with its shares up more than 300 percent over the same period as SNDK’s 1,200 percent run, suggesting the separation unlocked value for both entities rather than concentrating gains in one direction.
InvestingPro’s analysis currently flags the stock as overvalued relative to its Fair Value model, a cautionary note that carries real weight given the memory market’s historical cyclicality, even if the current AI demand cycle appears more durable than prior semiconductor booms.