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Pre-Q1 Earnings: Is Sandisk Stock a Portfolio Must-Have?

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Key Takeaways

  • SNDK expects Q1 revenues of $10.3B-$10.8B and non-GAAP EPS of $44-$46, reflecting strong growth.
  • Rising NAND prices and AI infrastructure investments are expected to boost SNDK's Q1 results.
  • SNDK shares have surged 447.1% YTD, outperforming peers, but trade at a premium valuation of 3.47X sales.

Sandisk (SNDK - Free Report) is set to report its first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Oct. 29.

For the to-be-reported quarter, SNDK expects revenues between $10.3 billion and $10.8 billion, indicating sequential growth of approximately 15-20% from the fourth quarter's $8.97 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $10.58 billion, suggesting 358.2% growth from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.

Sandisk expects non-GAAP earnings between $44 and $46 per share. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $46.23 per share, unchanged over the past 30 days. SNDK reported earnings of $1.22 per share in the year-ago quarter.

Consensus Estimate Trend

 

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Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

 

SNDK’s earnings have surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, with the average being 380.92%. 

 

Sandisk Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Sandisk Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Sandisk Corporation price-eps-surprise | Sandisk Corporation Quote

 

Let us see how things have shaped up for the upcoming announcement.

Key Factors to Note Ahead of SNDK’s Q1 Results

Sandisk is expected to have benefited from robust demand for NAND flash memory, accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investments, improving product mix and higher average selling prices (ASPs) in the first quarter of fiscal 2027. Growing demand for enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs), particularly from hyperscalers and AI infrastructure providers, is likely to have supported revenues and profitability.

Sandisk’s first-quarter fiscal 2027 performance is expected to have benefited significantly from continued improvements in NAND pricing. Strong demand for high-capacity storage solutions, driven by AI inference workloads and hyperscale data center investments, is supporting favorable industry supply-demand dynamics. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, approximately two-thirds of Sandisk’s sequential revenue growth came from higher pricing, with the remaining one-third attributable to increased volumes. This pricing momentum is likely to have continued into the first quarter of fiscal 2027, benefiting revenues and gross margins.

The company’s Datacenter business is expected to have remained a major growth engine in the first quarter of fiscal 2027. Increasing adoption of AI inference, agentic AI and data-intensive applications is driving demand for high-performance, high-capacity enterprise SSDs. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, Datacenter revenues increased 103% sequentially to $2.98 billion. SNDK expanded shipments of its compute-focused triple-level cell enterprise SSDs across hyperscale and AI infrastructure customers. Moreover, the commencement of revenue shipments for its quad-level cell Stargate platform is expected to have strengthened its position in high-capacity AI data lake applications.

Sandisk’s transition toward advanced BiCS8 NAND technology is expected to have supported first-quarter performance. BiCS8 incorporates innovative technologies, including CMOS directly bonded to Array (CBA) and hybrid wafer bonding, enabling higher density and better manufacturing efficiency. Increased adoption of BiCS8-based products, particularly in enterprise applications, is likely to have supported higher-value product shipments and a favorable revenue mix.

Meanwhile, SNDK’s strong pricing environment and improving revenue mix are expected to have supported profitability in the first quarter of fiscal 2027. The company’s first-quarter gross margin guidance of 83-85% suggests profitability is expected to have remained near historically elevated levels. However, increased investments in research and development, higher employee-related expenses and technology transitions are likely to have raised operating costs. SNDK expects non-GAAP operating expenses between $520 million and $540 million compared with $484 million in the preceding quarter.

Sandisk Shares Outperform Sector & Peers

Sandisk shares have jumped 447.1% year to date (YTD), outperforming the Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s appreciation of 14.9%. The company has outperformed its storage peers, including Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) , Seagate (STX - Free Report) and Micron Technology (MU - Free Report) , over the same time frame, shares of which have returned 122.9%, 148.1% and 225.4%, respectively.

SNDK Stock’s Price Performance  

 

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Sandisk shares are trading at a premium, as suggested by a Value Score of C. In terms of the forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S), Sandisk is trading at 3.47X, higher than the Zacks Computer-Storage Devices industry’s 2.41X. However, SNDK shares are trading at a lower multiple compared with Micron’s 3.56X, Western Digital’s 6.23X and Seagate’s 6.92X.

SNDK Stock’s Valuation

 

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Strong AI Demand to Aid SNDK’s Prospects

The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure represents one of Sandisk’s most significant long-term growth opportunities. AI inference and agentic AI applications require substantial storage capacity to support data generation, retrieval and processing. Unlike traditional computing workloads, AI applications increasingly require persistent, high-performance storage capable of supporting enormous data volumes with low latency. SNDK expects the global NAND market to exceed $300 billion in calendar 2026 and approach $500 billion in calendar 2027. 

Sandisk’s investments in next-generation BiCS NAND technologies are expected to strengthen its long-term competitive position. The company is advancing BiCS9 and BiCS10 technologies while developing subsequent generations to improve storage density, performance and manufacturing economics. SNDK’s scaling strategy emphasizes architectural, lateral and logical innovations rather than relying solely on increasing the number of NAND layers. The company’s joint development efforts with Kioxia also provide access to substantial research and development resources and advanced manufacturing expertise.

Conclusion

Sandisk’s first-quarter fiscal 2027 performance is expected to have benefited from improving NAND pricing, strong Datacenter demand, an expanding enterprise SSD portfolio and favorable product mix. Continued BiCS8 adoption and increasing revenue visibility from multiyear customer agreements are also likely to have supported profitability.

Sandisk currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and has a Growth Score of A, a favorable combination that offers a strong investment opportunity, per the Zacks Proprietary methodology. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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