SanDisk Founder Departure Clouds Mixed Earnings (SNDK)

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) may have just ended its great winning streak in post-earnings reactions versus the great growth of flash memory.  The independent flash memory leader said that second-quarter profit grew nearly five-fold to $257.9 million, or $1.08 EPS, versus $52.5 million or $0.23 EPS a year ago.  This was also on huge revenue growth of $1.18 billion versus $730.6 million a year ago.  Thomson Reuters had estimates of $0.90 EPS and $1.16 billion in revenue.  That is a substantial bottom-line beat on the surface, but the top-line win is marginal, and to make matters worse it is losing its founding Chairman and CEO.

The flash memory leader also said that it saw 47% total gross margin, which was due to “cost reductions and a stable pricing environment.”  AS much as the demand has been there for all those flash memory chips in all the consumer electronics, they should have had a stable pricing environment.  Here is the issue though…. Average price per gigabyte sold declined 18% year-over-year and was down 8% from one sequential quarter ago.

SanDisk also ended with a record high in its cash balance of $3.7 billion, or $2.6 billion net of debt.

The company did not offer guidance, so this is considered unfinished business.  Guidance usually comes in the conference call.

The big drop today may be initially more tied to the news that Dr. Eli Harari, its found, chairman, and chief executive officer, will retire from his current positions on December 31, 2010.  This marks the 5th of 10 CEOs we selected as CEOs to depart for 2009.

The board of directors appointed Sanjay Mehrotra, SanDisk’s President and COO, as the new CEO effective January 1, 2011.

SanDisk closed up 2.3% at $43.10 in the regular trading hours, but the stock is down a sharp 7.6% at $39.80 in the after-hours session.  The 52-week range is $16.21 to $50.55.

JON C. OGG