Sandisk posted one of the strongest sales years in its history, but investors focused on what came next, and they did not like it.
The company reported a 175% rise in sales for its just-completed fiscal year, according to Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace data. Total revenue reached $20.2 billion, up from $7.4 billion a year ago. The growth was fueled by surging demand for AI memory infrastructure.
Despite those results, Sandisk stock dropped 10% in early Thursday trading. The selloff came after the company issued first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue guidance with a midpoint of $10.55 billion, against Wall Street consensus estimates of $10.8 billion. The stock had been up close to 500% for the year going into the report, meaning expectations were already extremely high.
The fourth quarter results themselves were strong. Sandisk posted non-GAAP earnings of $39.25 per share on $8.97 billion in revenue, comfortably beating Wall Street estimates. Data center revenue jumped 103% sequentially to $2.98 billion, driven by demand for AI-related memory products.
On the earnings call, Sandisk CEO David Goeckeler pushed back against any suggestion that the company's long-term position was weakening. "We spent a lot of time over the last two or three quarters really working very deeply with our largest customers on committing demand. We have over four years of visibility now. We feel very good about where the franchise is," Goeckeler said.
Analysts were divided in their reactions, though most remained positive on the stock's longer-term outlook. Barclays analyst Tom O'Malley noted that June revenue came in above expectations, with better pricing offsetting weaker-than-expected bit growth. He pointed to the guidance miss as likely coming from bit growth and said the company was rationalizing lower bit growth by building inventory to meet contractual obligations. O'Malley added that the company expects fiscal year 2027 bit growth in the mid-teens and plans to continue major buybacks with excess cash after doing $4.5 billion in June. "Overall, the story here remains the same and we think Sandisk is attractive on a pullback," O'Malley wrote.
Citi analyst Asiya Merchant opened an upside 90-day short-term view on Sandisk shares, citing potentially favorable industry results and a forthcoming August investor day. Merchant said she expected to hear updated commentary regarding the second half of calendar year 2026, as well as technology roadmap updates and capital return plans. She described herself as "constructive on NAND fundamentals," pointing to tight production supply, strong hyperscale demand for generative-AI training and inferencing, and vendors working to improve profitability through price increases and long-term agreements while managing supply carefully.
The August investor day is now a key near-term date for shareholders watching whether the company can reset expectations after the guidance-driven selloff.
