SanDisk (SNDK) stock fell roughly 8% on Thursday morning, trading between $1,488 and $1,617, as Argus Research initiated coverage with a “Hold” rating — a cautious call that landed on an already fragile stock.
The Argus initiation contrasts sharply with the 18 Buy ratings already on the stock. But the neutral stance was enough to reignite selling pressure in a name that had already lost more than 31% from its June 22 peak of $2,354.39.
Thursday’s drop also continues a two-day slide. SNDK fell on Wednesday as well, after a strong multi-month rally prompted profit-taking across high-momentum AI hardware and memory chip names.
The broader market wasn’t helping the comparison either. While SNDK was sliding, the S&P 500 gained 0.4% and the Nasdaq rose 0.7%, making clear this was a stock-specific move, not a macro one.
Short interest is adding fuel to the fire. More than 11% of SNDK’s publicly available float is sold short, meaning any fresh bearish catalyst — like the Argus note — can quickly amplify downside moves.
Insider selling earlier in the summer, including an executive share sale in June, has also kept some investors cautious heading into earnings.
Sector sentiment took another hit from news that ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a Chinese memory chipmaker, filed to raise nearly $10 billion in a Shanghai IPO. The filing signals growing competition across the NAND flash memory space.
Memory chip peers have been volatile in recent sessions following a selloff triggered by South Korean rival SK Hynix’s sharp decline earlier in the week. The group partially recovered Tuesday, but sentiment across high-beta memory names remains fragile.
From a technical standpoint, SNDK is trading 22.4% below its 20-day simple moving average of $1,936.21 and 12.7% below its 50-day SMA of $1,722.23. Key support sits at $1,485, with resistance at $1,600.
The longer-term picture still looks constructive — SNDK remains 21% above its 100-day SMA and 95.5% above its 200-day SMA — which is why many bulls view this as a pullback within a bigger uptrend rather than a trend break.
Despite the near-term turbulence, analysts aren’t running for the exits.
Bank of America’s Wamsi Mohan reiterated a Buy rating on July 1 and raised his price target to $2,500 from $2,100, citing tight NAND supply and demand conditions he expects to persist through mid-2027.
Evercore ISI lifted its target to $3,100 from $1,400, pointing to SNDK’s durable earnings and free cash flow. Bernstein raised its target to $3,000 on June 30, citing long-term enterprise SSD supply agreements. Citigroup maintained a $2,500 target on June 25.
Q2 2026 earnings are scheduled for August 5. Wall Street consensus expects $33.38 per share on revenue of $8.24 billion — compared to just $0.29 EPS and $1.90 billion in revenue in the same period last year.
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