Why Sandisk (SNDK) Stock Dropped 9% on Friday After Its Best Day of the Year

TLDR

• Sandisk stock dropped ~9.5% on Friday after surging 22% on Thursday following Micron’s earnings beat
• A reported OpenAI IPO delay to 2027 spooked investors, threatening a near-term spending windfall for memory makers
• Hard drive peers Western Digital and Seagate fell 14% and 10% respectively; Micron dropped 5.6%
• Citi analyst Asiya Merchant kept her Buy rating and raised her price target to $2,500 from $2,025
• Despite Friday’s drop, Sandisk is still up roughly 790% year-to-date and over 4,300% in the past 12 months

Sandisk stock had a rough Friday. After soaring 22% on Thursday on the back of Micron’s blowout earnings, SNDK gave back a big chunk of those gains — falling around 9.5% to roughly $2,113 — as two separate pieces of bad news hit the tape.

Sandisk Corporation, SNDK

The first was simple profit-taking. A 22% single-day move invites sellers the next morning. That part wasn’t surprising.

The second hit harder. The New York Times reported that OpenAI is now leaning toward pushing its IPO from 2026 to 2027. The reason? Sam Altman reportedly wants to target a $1 trillion valuation, and advisors have told him that waiting could get him there. IPOing now risks leaving money on the table.

That’s a problem for Sandisk. OpenAI’s pre-IPO funding round valued it at $852 billion and raised $122 billion in cash. That money was expected to flow toward hyperscalers, who would then spend heavily on chips and memory for their data centers. An IPO would have unlocked even more.

Push that IPO to 2027, and you push that spending wave with it.

Why the NAND Market Still Looks Solid

Despite Friday’s selloff, analysts aren’t hitting the panic button. Citi’s Asiya Merchant kept her Buy rating on SNDK and raised her price target to $2,500 from $2,025.

Merchant’s note points to Micron’s earnings as evidence that the NAND market will stay tight through next year. Strong NAND demand and pricing power remain big positives for Sandisk, she argues.

The broader memory sector felt Friday’s pain too. Western Digital dropped 14%, Seagate fell 10%, and Micron gave back 5.6%.

What the Street Thinks

Of 29 investment firms tracked by FactSet, Sandisk carries an average Overweight rating. The breakdown: 18 Buy ratings, five Overweight ratings, five Hold ratings, and just one Sell.

That’s a pretty clean sweep.

Technical indicators do suggest the stock could be in overbought territory, but analysts don’t seem bothered by that right now.

Agentic AI is driving much of the demand story. These systems require large amounts of memory storage, and Sandisk sits squarely in the middle of that trend.

Even with Friday’s pullback, Sandisk is still up around 790% year-to-date. Over the past 12 months, the stock is up more than 4,300%.

The week as a whole ended on a sour note — SNDK finished roughly 3.3% lower across the five sessions despite the 22% Thursday spike.

Citi’s $2,500 price target is now the most recent analyst update on the stock.

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