By Nate Wolf
Shares of Sandisk surged again on Thursday as the flash memory supplier continued its hot start to the year.
Sandisk rose 4.9% to $406.88 before the opening bell, making it one of the top performers in the S&P 500 in the premarket session. The stock already has popped 63% through the first nine trading days of 2026 as of Wednesday's close.
It rose alongside other memory, data storage, and chip suppliers after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing beat earnings expectations and guided for much higher capital expenditures in 2026 than analysts had forecast. Investors seem to think the chip maker's outlook bodes well for the broader AI trade.
Sandisk has been a darling of that trade over the last year. With AI investments spurring demand for flash memory and causing memory prices to surge, the stock has gained nearly 1,000% since spinning off from Western Digital last February.
Wall Street is having trouble keeping up with the stock's meteoric rise. Barclays analyst Tom O'Malley reiterated an Equal Weight rating on Sandisk shares and boosted his price target to $385 from $220 in a research note, according to The Fly. Barclays' price target was just $39 until November.
Two-thirds of firms polled by FactSet rate Sandisk the equivalent of a Buy, but the average price target remains just $340.50 even as shares climb above $400 apiece. The stock is rising too quickly for sell-side firms to get a firm grasp on it.
That is making some investors understandably skittish. Short interest in Sandisk has increased in recent weeks, with 6.4% of shares now sold short.
Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 15, 2026 08:06 ET (13:06 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments