Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) Stock Price Up 6.2% – Here’s What Happened

Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK)’s stock price rose 6.2% during mid-day trading on Monday. The company traded as high as $904.00 and last traded at $886.51. 13,758,856 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 7% from the average session volume of 14,814,034 shares. The stock had previously closed at $835.06.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SNDK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Research raised Sandisk from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Sandisk from $1,550.00 to $1,300.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 30th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their target price on Sandisk from $1,900.00 to $1,400.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Sandisk from $2,745.00 to $2,720.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on Sandisk from $1,600.00 to $1,400.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sandisk currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $2,056.23.

Sandisk Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $126.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.11, a P/E/G ratio of 0.06 and a beta of 5.66. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $1,504.43 and its 200-day moving average is $1,264.98.

Sandisk’s stock is set to split before the market opens on Friday, November 20th. The 8-1 split was announced on Thursday, October 29th. The newly created shares will be issued to shareholders after the market closes on Thursday, November 19th.

Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 29th. The data storage provider reported $49.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $46.19 by $3.32. Sandisk had a return on equity of 125.70% and a net margin of 67.04%. The business had revenue of $11.03 billion for the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 23.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Sandisk Corporation will post 226.01 EPS for the current year.

Sandisk declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, August 5th that permits the company to repurchase $14 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to buy up to 6.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Sandisk

In related news, EVP Alper Ilkbahar sold 4,712 shares of Sandisk stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,540.58, for a total transaction of $7,259,212.96. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 44,134 shares in the company, valued at $67,991,957.72. The trade was a 9.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bernard Shek sold 2,308 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,767.33, for a total value of $4,078,997.64. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 25,305 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,722,285.65. The trade was a 8.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 77,899 shares of company stock worth $121,156,782. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sandisk

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SNDK. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Sandisk in the 2nd quarter worth about $23,408,732,000. Situational Awareness LP increased its position in shares of Sandisk by 42.4% during the second quarter. Situational Awareness LP now owns 2,495,344 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,673,739,000 after acquiring an additional 743,325 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Sandisk during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,621,353,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Sandisk during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,564,901,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Sandisk during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,413,917,000.

Sandisk Company Profile

SanDisk Corporation offers flash storage solutions. The Company designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using flash memory, controller, firmware and software technologies. The Company operates through flash memory storage products segment. Its solutions include a range of solid state drives (SSD), embedded products, removable cards, universal serial bus (USB), drives, wireless media drives, digital media players, and wafers and components. It offers SSDs for client computing applications, which encompass desktop computers, notebook computers, tablets and other computing devices.