SanDisk posted fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $8.79 billion, topping Wall Street consensus estimates of $8.64 billion by a meaningful margin.
The company also delivered adjusted earnings per share of $39.25, well above analyst estimates of $34.37, marking a strong end to the fiscal year.
SanDisk attributed its revenue growth to approximately one-third higher volumes and two-thirds higher pricing, reflecting favorable conditions in the memory market.
Despite the headline beats, investors punished the stock sharply, sending shares down 29.3% over five trading sessions to close Friday at $1,354.82.
The sell-off erased roughly $88 billion in market value and left the stock sitting 42% below its June 25 closing peak.
The core issue was forward guidance that failed to match elevated market expectations, with Q1 revenue projected between $10.3 billion and $10.8 billion versus consensus estimates of $11.16 billion.
Adjusted earnings per share guidance for the current quarter came in at $44 to $46, compared to analyst estimates of $45.58, another miss that added to investor frustration.
The market had come to expect dramatic upward surprises from SanDisk, and guidance that merely cleared the bar rather than soared above it was enough to trigger a significant correction.
Investors also noted that much of the company’s recent growth has been driven by pricing rather than volume, raising questions about the durability of the current momentum.
SanDisk, which spun off from Western Digital (WDC) in February 2025, has been among the stock market’s standout performers this year as memory and storage emerged as critical bottlenecks in the AI infrastructure build-out.
Even after the steep decline, the stock remains up an extraordinary 471% during 2026, underscoring how dramatically sentiment had shifted in favor of memory chip makers.
Datacenter revenue more than doubled sequentially, highlighting the explosive demand from cloud providers and AI-focused hyperscalers driving storage investment.
Consumer revenue, however, declined 32%, as the company acknowledged that smartphones and PCs are currently going through an adjustment period.
Management expressed confidence that those consumer markets would return to growth during calendar 2027, offering investors a longer-term reason to remain constructive on the stock.
To return capital to shareholders, SanDisk also approved an additional $14 billion share repurchase authorization, expanding its existing buyback program in a show of financial confidence.
