SNDK
Same old chip, new storyline?
SanDisk just did the classic market two-step: show huge growth, then get sold anyway. The stock fell after its fiscal first-quarter outlook came in a bit light, but Bank of America’s Wamsi Mohan says investors may be staring at the wrong playbook.
Why BofA is bullish
Mohan reiterated a Buy rating and set a $2,500 price target, arguing SanDisk is turning into a "secular opportunity" as AI inference makes NAND flash more essential. In plain English: if AI training builds the brain, inference is the thing constantly using it — and that means more storage, more retrieval, more demand.
What’s changing under the hood
SanDisk says it has signed new business model agreements with eight data center and edge customers, giving it long-dated revenue visibility and hefty customer commitments. That’s a big shift from the boom-bust memory world investors usually associate with NAND, where prices go up, everyone overbuilds, and then the floor falls out like a trapdoor.
A few numbers explain why the bulls are feeling themselves:
- fiscal fourth-quarter revenue hit $8.97 billion, up 51% sequentially
- data center revenue doubled sequentially to $2.98 billion
- consumer revenue dropped to $556 million
That mix matters. SanDisk is leaning less on PCs and phones and more on the AI infrastructure crowd, which is exactly where the growth story is hanging out these days.
The catch: memory still has memory issues
This isn’t a fairy tale. BofA still flags oversupply and a sharp NAND pricing drop as major risks, because memory cycles don’t magically retire. But the firm’s argument is that SanDisk’s contracts, cash deposits, and multi-year visibility could make the next downturn less brutal than the old ones.
Big picture: BofA isn’t saying SanDisk is risk-free. It’s saying the market may be underestimating how much AI is changing the rules — and if that’s right, today’s selloff could look a little dramatic in hindsight.