New York, Jan 20, 2026, 16:34 EST — After-hours
- Sandisk shares surged about 9.6%, closing at $453.12 in after-hours trading after a choppy day on Tuesday.
- Citi hiked its price target significantly, from $280 to $490, pointing to robust data center demand and limited supply.
- Investors are focused on Sandisk’s Jan. 29 earnings, looking for signals about pricing and demand in the enterprise SSD market.
Shares of Sandisk Corp (SNDK.O) jumped close to 10% Tuesday, bucking the broader market slump, following a price target hike from Citigroup on the memory company.
Citi boosted its price target on Sandisk to $490 from $280, keeping a buy rating intact. The bank cited strong data-center demand and well-balanced supply as key factors behind the upgrade. This target implies an 18.5% upside from Sandisk’s most recent close. LSEG data shows 22 analysts currently rate the stock as a “buy,” with a median price target sitting at $300. Since its Nasdaq listing in February 2025, shares have climbed about 11.5 times, according to LSEG. 1
Storage prices are shifting rapidly, making this a critical moment. Investors are treating the stock more and more as a high-beta gauge of whether AI-fueled data-center growth will keep pressuring memory supply.
The rest of the market moved the other way. The S&P 500 dropped around 2%, while the Nasdaq fell about 2.4%, as investors digested new tariff threats following President Donald Trump’s comments on Greenland. “I’m not at the point yet,” said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group, when asked whether this could spark a wider equity sell-off. 2
Sandisk surged 9.6% to close at $453.12, after trading between $392.91 and $457.00 earlier in the session.
Citi pointed to Sandisk’s “competitive moat” — meaning a durable advantage hard for rivals to copy — as a crucial factor likely to increase its market share in enterprise solid-state drives, or SSDs used in data centers.
Peers mostly stayed put. Micron Technology (MU.O) nudged up about 0.6%, Western Digital (WDC.O) rose close to 0.7%, and Seagate Technology (STX.O) remained flat.
Sandisk develops and sells storage products built on NAND flash memory chips, utilized in SSDs and removable cards. Its customer base spans cloud, client, and consumer sectors, per its Reuters profile. 3
Risks run both ways here. If spending on data centers stalls or suppliers boost capacity, NAND prices might fall, squeezing margins. Tariff-related costs complicate matters further. Morgan Stanley warned of a “perfect storm” hitting IT hardware, pointing to slowing demand, rising input costs, and high valuations. 4
Sandisk will release its fiscal second-quarter results on Jan. 29, with an earnings call scheduled for 4:30 p.m. EST. Investors are expected to focus on the company’s outlook for pricing, supply discipline, and enterprise SSD demand. 5
