One AI Stock Everyone Wishes They Bought Earlier

Vandita Jadeja

Thu, July 30, 2026 at 5:30 PM GMT+3 5 min read

Quick Read

SNDK has surged 2,266% over the past year but sits 50% off its June peak, with 24/7 Wall St. targeting $1,442 for 42% upside.
CEO David Goeckeler expects datacenters to become NAND's largest market in 2026, with Q4 revenue guided to between $7.75 billion and $8.25 billion and 92% odds of an earnings beat.
SanDisk's 78% gross margin crushes WDC's 51% and nearly matches MU's 85%, supporting a premium valuation for pure-play NAND in AI inference workloads.
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SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) embodies the AI storage buildout. The former Western Digital flash unit, spun off in February 2025, has risen from a filing price of $41.55 in August 2025 to $1,015.89 today on structural NAND shortage and datacenter demand.

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Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for SanDisk is $1,441.52, pointing to 41.9% upside over the next 12 months. I rate the shares a buy, with 90% confidence in the model's output.

The Pullback That Reset the Setup

SanDisk is up 2,266.39% over the past year and 327.96% year to date. The last month has been brutal: shares are down 50.45% from the June 29 peak of $2,050.39 and off 36.48% in the past week alone. The current price represents roughly a 57% drawdown from the 52-week high of $2,354.39.

Fundamentals remain solid. Q3 FY26, reported April 30, 2026, delivered revenue of $5.95 billion (up 251.03% YoY) and non-GAAP EPS of $23.41 versus $14.66 consensus. Datacenter segment revenue reached $1.47 billion, up 645% YoY.

Q4 guidance calls for revenue of $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $30 to $33. Polymarket traders price a 92.5% probability that SanDisk beats at earnings.

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SNDK Price Scenario — 24/7 Wall St.

Why Bulls See a Breakout Ahead

CEO David Goeckeler stated on the Q2 call: "For the first time, data centers are expected to become the largest market for NAND in 2026." Enterprise SSD exabyte growth forecasts have marched from mid-20s to high 60% in successive quarters. Management has signed five New Business Model agreements locking in multi-year customer commitments.

The analyst consensus target of $2,217.77 implies a bull case around $2,381.05 in our scenario model. Gross margin expanded to 78.4% from 22.5% a year prior. The balance sheet carries zero long-term debt after a $650 million paydown, with a fresh buyback authorized.

What Could Go Wrong

Our bear case lands at $1,019.89, essentially flat with today's price. The July drawdown of 50.45% signals momentum can vanish quickly in a cyclical commodity market. Reddit sentiment sits at 58.25, with the most viral thread titled "Bought at $2,330", a reminder that late buyers are underwater.

Kioxia dependency, hyperscaler customer concentration, and NAND price sensitivity remain classic risks. Bulls counter that the multi-year Long-Term Agreements Goeckeler is signing smooth the cyclicality that historically plagued this industry.

How SanDisk Compares to Micron and Western Digital

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) is the cleanest read-across. Micron delivered fiscal Q3 revenue of $41.46 billion, up 345.72% YoY, with gross margin of 84.6%. Micron's $834 billion market cap dwarfs SanDisk's $162 billion, but includes DRAM and HBM exposure SanDisk lacks. If Micron sustains 80%+ margins on AI memory, SanDisk's 78.4% NAND margin looks defensible.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC), SanDisk's former parent, posted Q3 FY26 revenue of $3.34 billion with non-GAAP gross margin of 50.5%. WDC's HDD business benefits from the same hyperscaler storage cycle but trades at a materially lower multiple. The wide gross margin gap in SanDisk's favor supports the premium NAND deserves in AI inference workloads.

Verdict on the Pullback

The 24/7 Wall St. price target of $1,441.52 is a buy at 90% confidence. The recent 50% drawdown resets the setup closer to the model's fair-value framework for investors evaluating an entry point.

The bull case strengthens if Q4 revenue lands inside management's $7.75 to $8.25 billion range and NBM agreements continue closing. The setup weakens if NAND spot pricing rolls over or hyperscaler capex guidance softens.

Assuming the current NAND cycle sustains and structural shortages persist through 2028 as management expects, here is where our model projects SanDisk could trade.

These projections assume SanDisk executes on multi-year customer agreements and NAND supply remains tight. Significant upside could come from High Bandwidth Flash adoption in AI inference, while a demand air pocket in 2027 or 2028 would compress the trajectory materially.