The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.

Sandisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) stock took its investors on a rollercoaster ride Friday. Opening down 5%, the stock quickly bounced in morning trading, then dropped, then floated toward noon -- then surged in the afternoon. Ultimately, the popular computer memory-maker closed up 8.2%.

Earnings were the reason.

Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on a little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly," providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need.  Continue »

Let's start with the (very) good news. Sandisk reported a $23.03 per share in GAAP profit on sales of $6 billion last night, crushing analyst targets for $14.66 per share (non-GAAP) and $4.7 billion in sales. Quarterly revenue nearly doubled year over year, up 97%.

CEO David Goeckeler says Sandisk has hit an "inflection point" in both sales and earnings as it focuses its efforts on selling semiconductors into "the highest-value end markets." (Which is to say, memory for use in conjunction with artificial intelligence chips.) Going forward, Goeckeler is promising investors "structurally higher and more durable earnings power."

Is Goeckeler saying Sandisk has ended the boom-and-bust loop of cyclical semiconductor sales and everything's going higher from here for Sandisk? It sure sounds like it -- and I admit that I worry just the tiniest bit that this might be irrational exuberance talking.

Still, in the near term, all systems look go for Sandisk. Guidance for the coming fourth quarter is for sales to nearly double sequentially to $8 billion (plus or minus $250 million). Gross profit margins should climb from 78.4% in Q3 to nearly 80% in Q4. Earnings per share might reach $30 to $33. If Sandisk lands anywhere near those targets, the company's going to blow past analyst forecasts for $46.68 per share in profit this year.

And Sandisk stock, at 24 times earnings, could still be cheap enough to buy.

Before you buy stock in Sandisk, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Sandisk wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $504,832!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,223,471!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 971% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 202% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of May 1, 2026.

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Why Sandisk Stock Snapped, Crackled, and Popped was originally published by The Motley Fool