Sandisk $SNDK ( ▲ 12.82% ) ripped higher Friday, extending its meteoric run as AI enthusiasm collides with fresh bullish calls from Wall Street. Shares surged nearly 13%, pushing the stock toward new records after two major firms raised their price targets and reinforced the bull case.
The move adds fuel to one of the market’s most dramatic post-IPO rallies.
Wall Street Turns the Volume Up
Goldman Sachs lifted its price target on Sandisk to $320 from $280 while reiterating a buy rating. Mizuho went even further, raising its target to a Street-high $410 from $250 and maintaining an outperform rating.
The message from analysts is clear: demand for data storage is accelerating faster than previously expected as AI workloads scale.
From “Commodity Storage” to AI Infrastructure Play
Sandisk was long viewed as a maker of relatively commoditized data storage products. That perception shifted rapidly after the company was spun out of Western Digital in an IPO earlier this year.
By the fall, investors began to fully price in what the AI boom means for storage demand. Training and running large models requires massive amounts of fast, reliable data storage, turning Sandisk into a critical piece of the AI infrastructure stack.
A Parabolic Run Gets Index-Level Recognition
Once that realization set in, the stock went vertical. Sandisk climbed more than 350% between late August and December, a surge that ultimately earned it inclusion in the S&P 500.
The momentum didn’t stop there. With a roughly 560% gain over the past year, Sandisk finished as the top-performing stock in the index, an extraordinary feat for a company that only recently returned to public markets.
For now, Wall Street’s latest upgrades suggest analysts still see room to run, as AI-driven demand continues to reshape what was once considered a sleepy corner of the tech hardware world.