By Nate Wolf

Sandisk's first year back on the stock market couldn't have gone any better. This week was just the icing on the cake.

Shares of the flash memory company have climbed 560% to $237.61 since they began trading on Feb. 13 at $36 apiece. The stock rose 15% across Thursday and Friday alone after peer Micron Technology crushed earnings expectations.

Sandisk traded publicly from 1995 until 2016, when Western Digital acquired it. The pair went their separate ways this year, with Sandisk spinning off as an independent company.

The timing worked out well for Sandisk: Data-intensive artificial intelligence workloads have boosted demand for flash memory, while supply remains limited. That dynamic means higher prices and wider margins.

Crucially, "the strong conditions are expected to persist beyond [2026], " wrote Benchmark Equity Research analyst Mark Miller in a note this week. Benchmark boosted its estimates for Sandisk in 2026 and 2027, reiterating a Buy rating on the stock and a $260 price target.

The firm expects Sandisk to post adjusted earnings of $13.11 a share on $10.5 billion in revenue in fiscal 2026, up from adjusted earnings of $3.02 a share and revenue of $7.4 billion in 2025. Benchmark also forecasts adjusted earnings to hit $20.42 a share in 2027 on $13 billion in revenue. In short, the firm says revenue could grow 76% in just two years.

Analysts at Citi are even more bullish. The firm reiterated a Buy rating and a $280 price target on Sandisk shares in a research note this week, arguing adjusted earnings will soar to $25.74 a share in fiscal 2027.

Sandisk's business selling enterprise solid state drives, or eSSDs, remains nascent, Citi wrote. These products are the flash memory drives favored by data centers. But the company's new Bics8 technology should give it a bulwark against competitors, Citi said.

"We believe the industry should remain in tight production supply, with eSSDs benefiting from extremely strong hyperscale demand on generative-AI training/inferencing services," wrote Citi analyst Asiya Merchant.

Index providers have taken notice of Sandisk's rise. The stock joined the S&P 500 in November, replacing Interpublic Group.

Investors who want to add more exposure likely missed out on the best months of Sandisk's upcycle. But, as Benchmark and Citi argue, there may be more gains ahead in 2026.

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com

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December 20, 2025 10:41 ET (15:41 GMT)

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