SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) posted a fourth-quarter earnings beat on Wednesday, but investors remained unconvinced as cautious guidance and questions over how long the memory boom can last sent the stock sharply lower in after-hours trading.

Analyst Sees Margin Questions Ahead

Susquehanna‘s Mehdi Hosseini said in an interview with CNBC that investors now need to determine whether memory makers can sustain gross margins approaching 80% as the artificial intelligence market shifts from training to inference workloads next year.

He added that the transition could ultimately benefit NAND demand, but preserving margins will remain the key question for the company’s management.

“You always have to have a leap of faith and look into next year and how the demand trends are going to evolve,” Hosseini said.

Ahead of the earnings, Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson said SanDisk’s earnings momentum could continue through fiscal 2027 and 2028 as limited industry capacity and the company’s multi-year customer agreements support pricing, according to a MarketWatch report.

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Market Looks Past Blowout Beat

AJ Investment Research said in a post on X that the company “significantly beat” analyst estimates but added that the cautious guidance overshadowed the results.

Jack Farley, host of the podcast Monetary Matters, said the chipmaker delivered a “giant beat” on revenue and earnings, but described the company’s fiscal first-quarter guidance as “meh” because it came in only modestly above Wall Street expectations.

Blockbuster Quarter Meets Cautious Guidance

SanDisk reported quarterly earnings of $39.25 per share, beating analyst estimates of $34.45, according to Benzinga Pro.

Revenue surged to $8.97 billion, topping expectations of $8.39 billion.

For first-quarter fiscal 2027, SanDisk guided revenue of $10.3 billion to $10.8 billion and adjusted earnings of $44 to $46 per share, compared to analyst estimates of $10.37 billion in revenue and $41.45 per share.

Price Action: Stock closed 5.40% lower on Wednesday at $1,350.50 and fell 7.96% to $1,243 in extended trading on the news of the earnings.

Benzinga edge rankings indicate SNDK has a Momentum score in the 99th percentile and a value score in the 8th percentile.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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