NEW YORK, March 20, 2026, 10:34 EDT
- Citi bumped Sandisk’s price target up to $875 from $750, following Micron’s results that signaled more momentum for the storage market.
- Sandisk dropped roughly 4.4% in Friday morning action. Micron fell as well, with Western Digital and Seagate sliding too.
- Micron’s latest guidance, together with Sandisk’s January projections, continues to support the bull thesis for AI-related storage—even as valuation concerns become tougher to shrug off.
Sandisk slipped roughly 4.4% in early U.S. trading Friday, even after Citi bumped its price target up to $875 from $750 the previous day. Investors seemed uncertain about whether the data-storage company’s AI-driven surge could continue. Shares changed hands at $738.50 as of 10:13 a.m. ET.
Micron’s blockbuster quarter this week sent fresh waves through the memory market, underscoring just how much AI-driven data-center spending is pushing up demand—well past the usual chip leaders. That’s good news for Sandisk. The company, which makes NAND flash used inside SSDs, benefits directly: the read-through here underpins both the pricing narrative and the margin momentum that’s been fueling the stock’s climb.
There’s not much room for mistakes at these levels. On Thursday, market analysis showed Sandisk up more than 1,200% over the past year, with the average analyst target sitting at about $570—still under where shares are currently trading, despite several upgrades in recent weeks.
Citi’s Asiya Merchant stuck with her buy call, pointing out that Micron easily cleared the Street’s bar for both revenue and EPS in the February quarter. NAND sales landed ahead of consensus too, signaling storage demand hasn’t let up. Over on Yahoo Finance’s analyst page, Citi’s price target climbed again Thursday—to $875—after bumping it up to $750 back in February.
The broader sector slipped Friday, with Micron off roughly 2.4%, Western Digital losing 5.4%, and Seagate falling 2.7%. The retreat deepened as investors shrugged off Micron’s robust results, zeroing in on the company’s decision to boost its fiscal 2026 capital spending by $5 billion, bringing the total above $25 billion.
Micron posted $23.86 billion in revenue for its second quarter and is projecting fiscal third-quarter revenue around $33.5 billion, give or take $750 million. Adjusted EPS came in at about $19.15. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra pointed to robust demand and limited supply, saying the company just notched records for revenue, gross margin, earnings, and free cash flow.
Sandisk’s latest figures have only added fuel for the bulls. Back in January, the company reported a jump in fiscal second-quarter revenue to $3.03 billion. Datacenter revenue surged 64% from the prior quarter. Looking ahead, Sandisk projected fiscal third-quarter revenue would land between $4.4 billion and $4.8 billion. CEO David Goeckeler attributed the results to a pickup in enterprise solid-state drive rollouts and firmer demand trends.
Back then, Goeckeler told Reuters that demand for AI “inference”—the stage where trained models handle user prompts—was driving big cloud buyers to ramp up purchases of flash storage and compute. “Customers prefer supply over price,” he said, after Sandisk and Kioxia locked in a supply deal running through 2034. Reuters
On March 18, a new valuation review highlighted the spread in opinions. One analysis pegged fair value close to $717—basically matching where shares were changing hands. But a discounted cash-flow model landed much higher, driving home how much the stock is riding on bold projections sticking.
There’s a risk supply ramps up ahead of demand. Mike O’Rourke, JonesTrading’s chief market strategist, told Reuters that Micron’s decision to boost spending just adds weight to concerns the current shortage might not last. Memory prices could end up behaving more like a typical commodity if new capacity hits the market. Should major cloud buyers dial back their outlays or if NAND prices stop rising, Sandisk’s premium may evaporate quickly.
