SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) just wrapped another wild session, closing sharply higher on Thursday before giving back a slice of those gains in after‑hours trading. After a year in which the stock has rocketed hundreds of percent and joined the S&P 500, every tick in SNDK is under the microscope – especially heading into Friday’s (December 12, 2025) session. [1]
Below is a news‑style rundown of what happened after the bell on December 11 and what traders should know before tomorrow’s open.
Key takeaways on SanDisk stock
- Strong close, softer after hours: SNDK finished Thursday at $241.61, up about 3.8% on the day, after trading between roughly $218 and $244 on heavy volume. [2]
- After‑hours pullback: By around 7:00 p.m. ET, after‑hours quotes had slid to about $237–238, roughly 1.5–1.6% below the close, as profit‑taking and options positioning kicked in. [3]
- “Historic upcycle” narrative intensifies: A fresh note from BNP Paribas highlighted a “historic upcycle” in memory, with DRAM and NAND prices up triple‑digits year‑on‑year and SanDisk flagged as a direct beneficiary. [4]
- New Buy call and bullish options tone: TipRanks/MarketWatch flagged a new Buy recommendation on SNDK, while separate flow data described “moderately bullish activity” with shares up just over 3% and options volume near normal. [5]
- Valuation still debated: Some analysts now see SNDK as trading below fair value despite a ~500–570% year‑to‑date surge, while others argue that earnings could normalize once the AI storage boom cools. [6]
How SanDisk traded on December 11, 2025
Regular session
According to multiple price feeds, SanDisk shares: [7]
- Opened: around $230.00
- Intraday high: about $244.19
- Intraday low: roughly $217.67
- Close:$241.61, a gain of 3.76% versus Wednesday’s $232.86
- Volume: about 7.3–7.4 million shares, modestly above the recent average
It’s the third straight green day and caps an extraordinary rebound from roughly $194 on December 3, with single‑day moves of +9.7%, +7.1%, -1.3%, -2.7%, +6.1% and +3.8% since then – the kind of volatility you normally see in small caps, not fresh S&P 500 entrants. [8]
Pre‑market tone
Before Thursday’s open, SNDK was already flashing some caution: on Public’s pre‑market feed, the stock traded around $229.50, about 1.4% below Wednesday’s close, with a narrow pre‑market range of roughly $229.00–$229.60. [9]
Bears lost that early battle. Once regular trading kicked in, buyers quickly stepped in near the low‑$220s and drove the stock toward the mid‑$240s before late‑day profit‑taking trimmed the intraday high.
After the bell: why SanDisk slipped in after‑hours trading
After the closing bell, SanDisk gave up part of its advance:
- Public’s extended‑hours page shows SNDK at $237.73 in the latest after‑hours trade, down 1.61% from the $241.61 close, with a range between about $233.9 and $245.5 in the evening session. [10]
- Investing.com reports a nearly identical after‑hours price near $237.9, down about 1.5% versus the close. [11]
Nothing in the company’s own news feed changed after the close – SanDisk’s investor‑relations site shows the latest official press releases were November 6 (earnings) and November 25 (conference participation). [12]
So what explains the dip?
- Plain old profit‑taking:
After rallying more than 20% just since December 3 and over 500% in 2025, even small shifts in risk appetite can trigger selling as traders lock in gains. [13] - Options positioning into a key expiry:
Data from OptionCharts shows put volume slightly exceeding call volume (put/call volume ratio around 1.3) across SNDK options, with a cluster of activity in contracts expiring December 12, 2025. [14]
Investing.com’s options chain highlights brisk trading in short‑dated calls around the $237.50–$245 strikes, suggesting active speculation on Friday’s move. [15] - Macro jitters in AI and chip stocks:
Across the semiconductor complex, investors are juggling euphoria over AI spending with worries about over‑valuation and a possible “AI bubble,” especially after recent volatility in big names like Nvidia and Oracle‑linked sell‑offs in AI‑heavy ETFs. [16]
The takeaway: Thursday night’s after‑hours weakness looks more like positioning and digestion after a huge run than a new company‑specific problem.
Fresh December 11 headlines: “Historic upcycle,” new Buy rating, and fair‑value debate
1. BNP Paribas calls a “historic upcycle” in memory
A widely circulated note from BNP Paribas, summarized by financial news outlets including Futu and Seeking Alpha, argued that the memory market is entering a “historic upcycle” that could last through 2026. [17]
Key points from that research:
- Spot prices for consumer DRAM are up over 400% year‑on‑year, and certain NAND TLC prices have climbed around 165% versus last year. [18]
- The bank’s analyst, Karl Ackerman, expects DRAM average selling prices to rise ~35% quarter‑over‑quarter in Q4 and another ~10% in Q1 2026, with NAND up ~15% and 7% over the same periods. [19]
- Micron (MU) and SanDisk (SNDK) are singled out as prime beneficiaries of the AI‑driven memory boom. [20]
This note echoes earlier pieces describing SanDisk as one of 2025’s biggest AI infrastructure winners, driven by hyperscaler demand for high‑capacity flash to feed data‑hungry models. [21]
2. TipRanks / MarketWatch: New Buy call and “moderately bullish” options activity
On Thursday morning, MarketWatch’s SNDK page highlighted a TipRanks headline:
“SanDisk Corp (SNDK): New Buy Recommendation for This Technology Giant.” [22]
While the underlying analyst report sits behind a paywall, it adds to a Street backdrop that already skews bullish: Finviz’s consensus target sits around $272.58 with an average rating near “Buy”, while Investing.com cites an average 12‑month target of about $264.95 (high $322, low $135), with 14 Buy and 1 Sell recommendations. [23]
Later in the day, TipRanks’ options‑flow coverage described “moderately bullish activity in Sandisk Corporation, with shares up $7.14, or 3.07%, near $240, and options volume roughly in line with average.” [24]
That combination – higher price, normal‑ish options volume, and a skew toward bullish flow – fits with how the stock behaved in regular trading.
3. Morningstar / Yahoo: Is SNDK actually undervalued?
A Yahoo Finance / Morningstar feature published Thursday, “Three Stocks That May Be Priced Below Their Estimated Fair Value,” included SanDisk in a short list of large‑cap names trading at a discount to analyst fair‑value estimates. [25]
Separately, S&P Global Market Intelligence (via Yahoo’s SNDK snapshot) still rates the stock “Hold” with a $230 target price, suggesting modest downside versus Thursday’s close and highlighting the split between different research shops. [26]
In other words, some valuation models argue SNDK is now slightly over its fair value, while others say it’s still cheap relative to its growth prospects.
Fundamentals: a turnaround that’s already showing up in the numbers
SanDisk’s current hype isn’t just story‑stock energy – the fundamentals have started to catch up.
Earnings and cash flow
In early November, SanDisk reported fiscal Q1 2026 results that blew past expectations: [27]
- Adjusted EPS: about $1.22 vs. consensus near $1.02
- Revenue: roughly $2.31 billion vs. $2.21 billion expected
- Net income: a swing from a $23 million loss the prior quarter to roughly $112 million profit
- Operating cash flow: about $488 million, versus a $131 million outflow a year earlier
- Free cash flow: nearly $438 million
- Q2 guidance: revenue in the $2.55–$2.65 billion range with non‑GAAP EPS of $3.00–$3.40
Management also emphasized that SanDisk reached net‑cash‑positive status ahead of schedule, giving it more flexibility to invest in capacity and R&D while still talking about potential capital returns. [28]
AI and S&P 500 tailwinds
A separate feature from 24/7 Wall St. notes that SanDisk has surged about 534% in 2025 after spinning off from Western Digital in February and that it now counts five major hyperscale cloud providers as key customers. [29]
SanDisk’s promotion to the S&P 500 – announced on November 24 and effective before the open on November 28 – triggered index‑fund buying and another leg higher in the share price. [30]
Snapshot from Finviz and other data providers
Finviz’s summary for SNDK on December 11 shows: [31]
- Market cap: about $35.4 billion
- Trailing 12‑month sales: roughly $7.8 billion
- Price‑to‑sales: ~4.6x
- Forward P/E: about 11x next year’s EPS estimates
- 52‑week range:$27.89–$284.76, with the current price about 15% below the high and over 750% above the low
- YTD performance: roughly +570%
- Profitability snapshots: trailing GAAP metrics still show negative net income and margins, reflecting how deep the last memory downturn was, even as recent quarters and guidance look much healthier.
Put differently: SanDisk already looks like a high‑growth AI winner on the chart, but on forward earnings it’s still priced closer to a cyclical memory stock than a pure hyper‑growth SaaS name. That tension is exactly what bulls and bears are arguing about right now.
Technical picture: key levels into the December 12 session
Technical‑analysis sites and options markets give a sense of the risk/reward setup heading into Friday.
Trend and volatility
Recent price history shows:
- A powerful uptrend from the low‑$190s to the mid‑$240s in just over a week
- Daily swings often in the 5–10% range
- The stock trading well above its 50‑day and 200‑day moving averages (which were around the mid‑$170s and low‑$90s, respectively, as of early December). [32]
StockInvest, which provides rule‑based signals, currently labels SNDK a “Hold/Accumulate” rather than an outright buy, noting: [33]
- Short‑ and long‑term moving averages still give positive signals
- Important support from accumulated volume around $215, then $200
- Nearby resistance around $239–$244
- A recommended stop‑loss near $220 for short‑term traders
- A projected intraday range on Friday of roughly $219.5–$237.4, implying an 8% potential swing from low to high
Hexn’s quantitative forecast is even more sanguine, calling for only a 0.06% move and looking for SNDK to sit near $242 by December 12, with a “bullish” 70% sentiment reading and about 4% weekly volatility. [34]
Of course, these are model‑based estimates, not guarantees – but they reinforce the idea that volatility is the norm here, not the exception.
Options clues
Options data around the December 12 weekly expiration show: [35]
- Total daily options volume near 11,800 contracts, with a put/call volume ratio around 1.3 (slightly more puts than calls traded)
- Heavy activity in near‑the‑money calls and puts around strikes like $237.50, $240, $242.50 and $245
- Significant open interest in both directions, which can sometimes pin the stock near popular strikes or, if large positions are unwound, accelerate moves through those levels
For Friday, watch how price behaves around $240–$245: that’s both intraday resistance from Thursday and a cluster of active short‑dated options. [36]
What to watch before the December 12, 2025 open
Here’s a concise checklist for traders and investors heading into Friday’s session.
1. Pre‑market tape and whether the after‑hours dip deepens
- If pre‑market quotes stabilize near $235–$238, it would suggest that Thursday night’s sell‑off was mostly position‑squaring.
- A move back above $240 pre‑market would hint that dip‑buyers are still aggressively supporting the stock.
- Conversely, if SNDK breaks convincingly below the low‑$230s, especially on meaningful pre‑market volume, the market may be preparing to re‑test the $220–$225 zone or stronger support near $215. [37]
Remember that pre‑market liquidity is thin, so early prints can be noisy.
2. Macro and sector sentiment
SanDisk now trades like a macro‑sensitive AI and semiconductor play:
- Recent sessions have seen AI‑related stocks wobble whenever big‑cap tech earnings or guidance (like Oracle’s) stoke bubble concerns. [38]
- The broader S&P 500 remains near record highs, but volatility can spike quickly if new economic data alters expectations for Fed rate cuts or AI capex spending. [39]
If futures or sector ETFs show risk‑off tone Friday morning, SNDK – with its high beta and big year‑to‑date run – can move faster than the indices in either direction.
3. The “historic upcycle” narrative vs. normalization risk
The market is currently trying to balance two stories:
- Bull case:
- AI data centers and cloud customers are driving huge jumps in DRAM and NAND prices.
- BNP Paribas and others think this upcycle could last through 2026, with SanDisk a core winner given its pure‑play flash exposure and hyperscaler customer list. [40]
- Bear case:
- Memory is historically brutally cyclical, and price spikes often sow the seeds of future oversupply.
- Some firms, including JPMorgan and S&P Global’s research arm, have issued more cautious or Neutral ratings, warning that current earnings might represent close to peak cycle margins. [41]
Heading into Friday, any new commentary on memory pricing, AI capex budgets, or capacity additions could swing sentiment quickly.
4. Time horizon and risk management
Because SNDK is now both a top‑performing S&P 500 stock and a crowded AI trade, your approach should match your time horizon:
- Short‑term traders might:
- Long‑term investors might focus more on:
- Whether SanDisk can deliver on its raised guidance (Q2 FY26 EPS of $3.00–$3.40) and sustain strong cash‑flow generation. [45]
- How durable the AI storage boom proves to be, and whether hyperscaler demand holds up if macro growth slows. [46]
- Valuation versus growth: forward P/E near 11 and price‑to‑sales around 4.5 are not outrageous if earnings keep compounding, but will look steep if the cycle stalls. [47]
Bottom line
SanDisk stock closed strong but faded modestly after hours on December 11, as options flows, profit‑taking, and broader AI‑sector jitters dragged the price a few dollars below its session highs. Under the surface, the core story hasn’t changed: Wall Street is still digesting a rare combination of explosive share‑price performance, rapidly improving fundamentals, and a bullish industry call that the memory market is entering a “historic upcycle.” [48]
Heading into the December 12, 2025 open, the key questions for SNDK are:
- Can buyers defend the low‑$230s to mid‑$220s after such a massive run?
- Will new data points reinforce – or puncture – the thesis that AI storage demand can keep NAND prices and earnings elevated into 2026?
- And for each investor: does your risk tolerance and time horizon match a name that can move 5–10% in a single session?
References
1. 247wallst.com, 2. stockanalysis.com, 3. public.com, 4. news.futunn.com, 5. www.marketwatch.com, 6. 247wallst.com, 7. stockanalysis.com, 8. stockanalysis.com, 9. public.com, 10. public.com, 11. www.investing.com, 12. investor.sandisk.com, 13. stockanalysis.com, 14. optioncharts.io, 15. www.investing.com, 16. www.investopedia.com, 17. news.futunn.com, 18. news.futunn.com, 19. news.futunn.com, 20. news.futunn.com, 21. 247wallst.com, 22. www.marketwatch.com, 23. finviz.com, 24. www.tipranks.com, 25. finance.yahoo.com, 26. finance.yahoo.com, 27. 247wallst.com, 28. 247wallst.com, 29. 247wallst.com, 30. press.spglobal.com, 31. finviz.com, 32. www.tipranks.com, 33. stockinvest.us, 34. hexn.io, 35. optioncharts.io, 36. stockanalysis.com, 37. public.com, 38. www.investopedia.com, 39. 247wallst.com, 40. news.futunn.com, 41. finviz.com, 42. stockinvest.us, 43. stockinvest.us, 44. optioncharts.io, 45. 247wallst.com, 46. 247wallst.com, 47. finviz.com, 48. news.futunn.com
