SanDisk plunges 14% as AI hardware selloff

SanDisk shares dropped 14% to a session low of $1,707.58 on Thursday as capital moved away from AI chip and memory hardware stocks into AI software companies. The decline followed a large rally earlier in the year that left the stock exposed to profit-taking.

The stock had risen roughly 858% in the first half of 2026 from a 52-week low of $40.10, a run that market participants said encouraged some investors to lock in gains. Memory storage peers, including Micron Technology and Western Digital, also posted sharp losses as the sector entered what traders described as a technical correction.

On June 30, Bernstein raised its price target on the company to $3,000 from $1,700 and maintained an Outperform rating, citing new long-term supply agreements with fixed or range-bound pricing and upfront financial commitments that it expects will reduce earnings volatility. Bank of America maintained a Buy rating and increased its price target to $2,500 from $2,100, projecting June-quarter revenue of $9.1 billion and earnings per share of $37.01, above the company’s guidance range of $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion.

Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan wrote that he expects a supply/demand imbalance in the NAND market through 2027 and said pricing should hold up into mid-2027. Industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo noted that the memory supply-demand gap will widen through 2027. Analysts also pointed to China-based suppliers as a risk: Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) could add capacity that pressures NAND prices if it expands beyond domestic customers, and Apple has pressed U.S. officials on ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) while seeking more DRAM sources.

Technically, SanDisk remained above its 20-, 50- and 200-day simple moving averages, with the moving averages in a bullish alignment. The stock’s relative strength index was 46.62, indicating more balanced momentum after the pullback. Despite Thursday’s drop, the shares trade far above their year-low and several analyst price targets remain well above current levels.

Market participants attributed the decline primarily to sector rotation and broad profit-taking in AI hardware and memory names rather than any company-specific news. Analysts retained constructive forecasts for SanDisk’s longer-term fundamentals despite the pullback.