Shares of Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK | SNDK Price Prediction) are up 7% to $1,630 in early Friday trading, extending Thursday’s blowout session. The rally spans the memory complex, with Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) stock up 4% to $505 and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) shares up 3% to $978.
SK Hynix (NASDAQ:SKHY) is up 2% to $169, Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) shares are up 2% to $941, and the Roundhill Memory ETF (CBOE:DRAM) is up 2% to $58. Friday’s action extends a Thursday session in which Sandisk stock jumped 14% and Micron shares gained 4%.
Two catalysts are driving the flash names: a wave of bullish analyst resets on Sandisk and a fresh $14 billion buyback authorization. Behind both sits a bigger backdrop. Korea’s Kospi has vaulted back into bull market territory, pulling the global memory complex higher.
Analyst Resets and a $14 Billion Buyback Anchor Sandisk
JPMorgan resumed coverage of Sandisk stock at Overweight with a $2,250 price target. It’s a resumption of suspended coverage, not an upgrade. Susquehanna raised its Sandisk price target to $3,250, and Evercore ISI’s Amit Daryanani reiterated Outperform with a $2,800 target. Our full Friday analyst call roundup has more information.
Daryanani anchored his call on new multiyear customer agreements Sandisk has signed worth $93.9 billion across eight clients, including three U.S. hyperscale data center operators. That contract book, disclosed with last week’s fiscal Q4 2026 print, is the core of Sandisk’s pivot from spot-market flash pricing to strategic supplier status. We covered Sandisk’s investor day model in detail Thursday.
Separately, Sandisk’s board authorized an additional $14 billion share repurchase program, bringing total remaining buyback capacity to approximately $15.5 billion. CFO Luis Visoso stated, “We are optimizing for growth, sustainability and returns. As we do that, we expect to return 100% of excess cash to our shareholders after investing in the business.”
Korea’s Kospi Returns to a Bull Market
South Korea’s Kospi has climbed back into bull market territory, rising more than 20% from its July low, and crossed 7,000 for the first time in 15 trading days. The index is up over 10% in five trading days. In Friday’s Asian session, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2%, the Topix added 0.9%, the Kospi advanced 2%, and the Kosdaq gained 0.8%. Furthermore, Sandisk partner Kioxia rallied in Tokyo.
The Korean move matters because SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics are the world’s two largest DRAM and high bandwidth memory (HBM) producers, and their Kospi listings set sentiment for the global memory tape. This is a two-continent memory rally spanning both flash and DRAM producers.
The skeptics are worth hearing. Fibonacci Asset Management Global’s Jung In Yun declared, “I would be cautious about describing this as a completely new bull market.” KB Securities’ Peter Kim asserted the earlier selloff was driven by technical factors and fund flows rather than doubts about semiconductor earnings, and that the unwinding of leveraged positions has since eased. Korea’s holiday weekend is approaching, a real question mark for whether foreign inflows can hold the 7,000 level.
Peers Follow the Move as Macro Cooperates
The rally reaches every corner of the memory and storage stack. Western Digital, now a pure-play hard-drive maker after the Sandisk separation, and Seagate are both riding the mass-capacity data center narrative, while Micron stock extends a run that has taken shares up 233% year to date. The Roundhill Memory ETF, the dedicated memory fund with a 0.65% expense ratio, gives investors a diversified approach to the memory/storage theme.
The macro backdrop is cooperating, as well. July’s CPI rose 0.1% month over month and 3.4% year over year, matching expectations, while July producer prices were unchanged and 12-month wholesale inflation cooled to 4.7% from 5.5% in June. That eased September rate-hike worries and sent the S&P 500 to a record close of 7,798, up 0.65%, with the NASDAQ 100 up 0.8% at 26,803.
What to Watch
Traders can watch for whether the Kospi holds 7,000 through Korea’s holiday weekend, since foreign flows drive that tape. On the storage side, investors can check for whether Western Digital and Seagate shares keep pace with the flash names, since hard-drive demand is a separate cycle from NAND pricing.
Sandisk stock itself is the third indicator. Thursday’s rally faded off its intraday highs into the close, so market watchers can look for whether Friday’s early gains hold through the U.S. session. If they do, the memory rally could have more room to run into next week.
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