SanDisk Reclaims $1,500 Support as the Samsung-Triggered Memory Rout Unwinds

The Round Trip Off $1,500

SNDK spent the last two sessions as the highest-beta casualty of a memory-complex flush, and this move is the reclaim of most of it. The trigger for the drop was never SanDisk-specific: Samsung's preliminary Q2 print landed at roughly 89.4 trillion won in operating profit, up about 1,800% year over year on AI chip demand, and instead of lifting the group it set off a classic sell-the-news unwind — the names had run too far into the print, and SanDisk, Micron, Western Digital, Seagate and SK Hynix sold off together. SNDK sliced down to the $1,500 line that had been the floor of its June range, with bears eyeing $1,250 underneath. At $1,689, up 12.72%, the stock came off a low near that $1,500 support and is back roughly where it started the week. That framing matters: this is a support reclaim and a round trip, not a fresh breakout to new highs.

Goldman's $2,200 Anchor

Dip-buyers didn't have to guess at the fundamental case. Goldman's James Schneider nearly doubled his price target to $2,200 from $1,200 while keeping a Buy, pointing to tightening NAND supply, improving enterprise SSD demand from hyperscale cloud buyers, and stronger contract pricing — with his 2026 EPS estimate running roughly 30% above the Street. He isn't alone: over the prior two weeks the sell side stacked targets well above spot, with BofA and Citi both at $2,500 and Bernstein at $3,000. And the pricing backdrop underneath those calls is real rather than narrative — SanDisk has been pushing enterprise flash prices up around 50% and moving to double the price of 3D NAND for enterprise SSDs as AI storage demand outruns supply. That's the wall of cover that let buyers reload the most levered pure-play NAND name the moment it hit support.

What August Has to Prove

The honest read is that this is a technical reclaim inside a still-parabolic chart. SNDK is up roughly 635% year to date, off a peak that had it up nearly 900%, and the entire debate now is whether tight supply survives the capacity that always follows a price spike this steep. That's why the fiscal Q4 report due in August carries more weight than any analyst note: consensus is modeling a swing from 29 cents in EPS a year ago to north of $33, and the print either confirms the tight-supply thesis or hands the peak-pricing bears their proof. Until then, the map is simple — $1,500 is the line the bulls just defended, and the 52-week high near $2,354 is the ceiling. Everything in between is the memory market arguing with itself.