Changes in US stocks | Memory-chip concept stocks collectively plummeted, and SanDK.US (SNDK.US) fell more than 11%

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on Thursday, memory chip concept stocks collectively plummeted. Western Digital (WDC.US) plummeted by more than 18%, SanDisk (SNDK.US) plummeted by more than 11%, SK Hynix (SKHY.US) fell more than 7%, Seagate (STX.US) fell more than 6%, and Micron Technology (MU.US) fell nearly 6%.

Storage giant SanDisk revealed financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026, showing that the company's fourth fiscal quarter performance exceeded expectations, with revenue, EPS, and gross margin all hit record highs in a single quarter. The company's revenue increased 372% year over year to US$8.97 billion, higher than the forecast of US$8.39 billion; non-GAAP adjusted earnings per share (EPS) reached $39.25, 135 times the level of $0.29 a year ago, more than 10% higher than analysts' expectations; adjusted gross margin reached 84.6%, 3.2 times higher than a year ago, higher than market expectations of 81.5%.

In terms of performance guidance, SanDisk expects revenue for the first fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2027 to be 10.3 billion to 10.8 billion US dollars, with a median range of about 10.55 billion US dollars, an increase of 359% over the previous year, and nearly 5.5% lower than analysts' expectations of 11.16 billion US dollars. Furthermore, the company expects the adjusted EPS for the first fiscal quarter to be 44 to 46 US dollars, and the median guideline value is 45 US dollars, which is slightly lower than the market forecast of about 45.58 US dollars. The adjusted gross margin guideline was 83.0% to 85.0%. Compared with 84.6% in the fourth fiscal quarter, it remained high, but there was no further significant expansion.

Goldman Sachs analyst James Schneider's team broke the mystery in the post-earnings report: the core contradiction currently facing the storage industry is not a deterioration in fundamentals, but rather that market expectations are too far ahead of reality.

Goldman Sachs said that the median revenue guidance given by SanDisk for the next quarter was only 10.55 billion US dollars, which is significantly lower than the market's general forecast of 11.15 billion US dollars; the gross margin guidance also did not bring any surprise. As for Western Digital, although its gross margin guidance slightly exceeded expectations, the overall revenue outlook was only on the same level as market consensus, which was interpreted as “not surprising enough.”

Citibank analyst Asiya Merchant lowered SanDisk's target price from $2,500 to $2,100 and maintained the buying rating. On the same day, Jefferies lowered its target price for SanDisk from $3,000 to $1,750.