• Citi believes SanDisk stands to benefit from persistently strong storage demand and a highly favorable pricing environment.
• Melius Research said it feels incrementally good about memory and AI semiconductor makers.
• Wall Street is largely bullish on SNDK, with 17 of the 22 firms covering the stock rating it a ‘Buy’ or higher.

SanDisk (SNDK) has received substantial price-target hikes by analysts, who remain bullish on the memory chip maker’s stock, which has seen a near sixfold rise in value so far this year.

According to TheFly, Citi stated the strong earnings report by Kioxia–SanDisk’s crucial partner, which co-develops and manufactures NAND flash memory, indicates "persistently strong" storage demand and a "highly favorable" pricing environment.

The firm also said it remains constructive on the company and believes stock buybacks can help drive upside to earnings estimates. Citi has a ‘Buy’ rating and raised its price target to $2,025 from $1,300, implying nearly 52% upside potential from Monday’s close. The new price target is also about 56% higher than Citi’s previous target.

On Monday, Melius Research said it feels "incrementally good" about memory and AI semiconductor makers, including SanDisk, even though "nothing really emerged as incrementally good from Trump going to China," TheFly reported. The firm has a ‘Buy’ rating and a price target of $2,350, implying an upside potential of over 76%.

Memory Chip Crunch Continues

Memory chipmakers continue to face a supply shortage driven by demand from the buildout of AI data center infrastructure, which is advancing rapidly in the U.S.

But some players in the industry believe that improving technology to address current demand would be a better solution than simply increasing production capacity.

On Monday, Seagate's (STX) CEO Dave Mosley told investors at a JPMorgan conference that his company would rather focus on improving memory chip technology to provide more storage than on expanding manufacturing at the risk of creating a market glut.

"We're targeting mid-20s% growth, which is enormous CAGR. The only way we're gonna get there is to be able to go through those technology transitions... That's really the way we're driving it. If we took the teams off and started building new factories or bringing up new machines, it would just take too long,” Mosley said on Monday.

What Retail Thinks About SNDK

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment about SNDK remained ‘bearish,' but several users noted Citi’s price target action.

However, Wall Street is largely bullish on SNDK, with 17 of the 22 firms covering the stock rating it a ‘Buy’ or higher; four rated it a ‘Hold’ and one ‘Sell,’ according to Koyfin data.

SNDK has seen a 34-fold increase in value over the past 12 months, outperforming the S&P 500, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH), and the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX).

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