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SNDK, Sandisk Corporation
Sandisk is a leading developer, manufacturer and provider of data storage devices and solutions based on NAND flash technology.
As of February 21, 2025, we separated from WDC (the "separation") and became a standalone publicly traded company, trading under the stock symbol "SNDK" on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
With a differentiated innovation engine driving advancements in storage and semiconductor technologies, our broad and ever-expanding portfolio delivers powerful flash storage solutions for AI workloads in datacenters, edge devices, and consumers.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What it is
- Revenue is Client (56%), Consumer (31%) and Cloud (13%).
- What moves the needle
- Operating margin has reached 61% at its best but run negative through the cycle (median −13%) on a 23% gross margin — so the question is which reading is truer: whether the median was pulled below zero by one-off charges, by the cycle, or by spending it is still growing into, and whether it settles back at a profit. Inventory runs near 28% of sales, so how fast it turns back into cash — and the risk of writing it down when demand softens — sits alongside the margin. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −7%, above 15% in 1 of 4 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →Revenue spreads across 3 lines, the largest Client at 56%.
- Client56%$4.1B
- Consumer31%$2.3B
- Cloud13%$960M
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2023–2026
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | 2026’26 | TTMTTMJul 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||
| $6.1B | $6.7B | $7.4B | $20.2B | $20.2B | RevenueRevenue |
| $430M | $1.1B | $2.2B | $14.5B | $14.5B | Gross profitGross prof. |
| 7% | 16% | 30% | 71% | 71% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| 9% | 7% | 8% | 3% | 3% | SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev |
| 19% | 16% | 15% | 7% | 7% | R&D / revenueR&D/rev |
| ($2.0B) | ($468M) | ($1.4B) | $12.4B | $12.4B | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| −33.4% | −7.0% | −18.7% | 61.2% | 61.2% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| ($2.0B) | ($503M) | ($1.5B) | $13.0B | — | Pretax incomePretax |
| ($2.1B) | ($672M) | ($1.6B) | $11.4B | $11.4B | Net incomeNet inc. |
| — | — | — | 12% | 12% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||
| ($713M) | ($309M) | $84M | $11.7B | $11.7B | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $448M | $224M | $163M | $149M | $149M | Depreciation & amortizationD&A |
| $817M | ($10M) | $1.4B | ($143M) | ($143M) | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $219M | $166M | $204M | $177M | $177M | CapexCapex |
| 3.6% | 2.5% | 2.8% | 0.9% | 0.9% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| ($932M) | ($475M) | ($79M) | $11.5B | $11.5B | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| −15.3% | −7.1% | −1.1% | 56.8% | 56.8% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| ($932M) | ($475M) | ($120M) | $11.5B | $11.5B | Free cash flowFCF |
| −15.3% | −7.1% | −1.6% | 56.8% | 56.8% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| — | $0 | $0 | $4.5B | — | BuybacksBuybacks |
| ($189M) | $210M | $556M | ($1.4B) | — | Investing cash flowInv. cash |
| $860M | $136M | $518M | ($7.0B) | — | Financing cash flowFin. cash |
| ($1M) | ($1M) | ($5M) | ($3M) | — | Exchange-rate effectFX |
| ($43M) | $36M | $1.2B | $3.3B | — | Change in cashΔ cash |
| -14% | -3% | -11% | 99% | 99% | ROICROIC |
| -19% | -6% | -18% | 73% | 73% | Return on equityROE |
| −19% | −6% | −18% | 73% | 73% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||
| $292M | $328M | $1.5B | $4.8B | $4.8B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| — | $935M | $1.1B | $4.7B | $4.7B | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| — | $2.0B | $2.1B | $2.7B | $2.7B | InventoryInvent. |
| — | $2.9B | $3.1B | $7.4B | $7.4B | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| — | $3.5B | $5.1B | $12.8B | $12.8B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| — | $2.1B | $1.4B | $5.6B | $5.6B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| — | 1.7× | 3.6× | 2.3× | 2.3× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| — | $791M | $619M | $674M | — | Net PP&ENet PP&E |
| — | $7.2B | $5.0B | $5.0B | $5.0B | GoodwillGoodwill |
| — | $13.5B | $13.0B | $22.5B | $22.5B | Total assetsAssets |
| — | $0 | $1.8B | $0 | $0 | Total debtDebt |
| — | ($328M) | $368M | ($4.8B) | ($4.8B) | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| -65.6× | -11.7× | -21.9× | 169.7× | 169.7× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| — | $2.4B | $3.8B | $6.8B | — | Total liabilitiesTotal liab. |
| $11.4B | $11.1B | $9.2B | $15.7B | $15.7B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| 2.7% | 2.2% | 2.5% | 1.1% | 1.1% | Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev |
| $671M | — | $1.8B | — | — | Goodwill written downGW imp. |
| Per share | |||||
| 145M | 145M | 145M | 155M | 155M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $41.97 | $45.95 | $50.72 | $130.63 | $130.63 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $-14.78 | $-4.63 | $-11.32 | $73.76 | $73.76 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $-6.43 | $-3.28 | $-0.54 | $74.15 | $74.15 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $-6.43 | $-3.28 | $-0.83 | $74.15 | $74.15 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $1.51 | $1.14 | $1.41 | $1.14 | $1.14 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $78.89 | $76.43 | $63.56 | $101.52 | $101.52 | Book value / shareBVPS |
| 3-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +46.0%/yr | +46.0%/yr (3-yr) |
| Capital spending / share | −8.9%/yr | −8.9%/yr (3-yr) |
| Book value / share | +8.8%/yr | +8.8%/yr (3-yr) |
The year, in the company's words
the filing →Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.
- Revenue+10.4%
“Net Revenue Net revenue increased 10%, or $692 million, in 2025 compared to 2024, primarily due to a 6% increase in exabytes sold due to stronger demand in our Cloud end market and a 4% increase in average selling prices (“ASP”) per gigabyte due to enhanced pricing as the supply-demand balance improved.”
✓ figure matches the filed record - Client+1.4%
“Client revenue increased 1%, or $58 million, in 2025 compared to 2024, primarily due to an 8% increase in ASP per gigabyte, partially offset by a 7% decrease in exabytes sold.”
✓ figure matches the filed record - Consumer0.0%
“Consumer revenue decreased $1 million in 2025 compared to 2024, primarily due to a 6% increase in exabytes sold, offset by a 7% decrease in ASP per gigabyte due to pricing pressure.”
✓ figure matches the filed record - Cloud+195.4%
“Cloud revenue increased 195%, or $635 million, in 2025 compared to 2024, primarily due to a 153% increase in exabytes sold due to increased enterprise SSD shipments to data center customers and a 17% increase in ASP per gigabyte due to improved pricing.”
✓ figure matches the filed record
Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.
In fiscal 2026 the business turned $11.4B of profit into $11.5B of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.
| FY2026 | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | $11.4B | ($1.6B) | ($672M) | ($2.1B) |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$149M | +$163M | +$224M | +$448M |
| Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost | +$232M | +$182M | +$149M | +$165M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | −$143M | +$1.4B | −$10M | +$817M |
| Cash from operations | $11.7B | $84M | ($309M) | ($713M) |
| Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume | −$177M | −$163M | −$166M | −$219M |
| Owner earnings | $11.5B | ($79M) | ($475M) | ($932M) |
| Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still | — | −$41M | — | — |
| Free cash flow | $11.5B | ($120M) | ($475M) | ($932M) |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 57% | -1% | -7% | -15% |
Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $232M), owner earnings is nearer $11.3B.
Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Will it survive?
- Can it pay its interest? 169.7×ComfortableOperating income $12.4B ÷ interest expense $73M
What this means
Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.
- Net cash, debt-freeCash $4.8B − debt $0
What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $4.8B, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Is it a good business?
- Below average through the cycle4-yr median, range -14%–99%; 99% latest = NOPAT $10.9B ÷ invested capital $11.0BIndustry peers: median 12%
What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 4 years (it ran 99% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
- Positive this year, negative across the cyclelatest $11.5B = operating cash $11.7B − maintenance capex $177M (positive this year), after an earlier loss stretch (4-yr median -4%)Industry peers: median 6%
What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 57% of revenue this year, a -4% median across 4 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $232M of SBC) leaves $11.3B.
- Cash-backedCash from ops $11.7B ÷ net income $11.4B
What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.
How is the cash used?
- Reinvests most of itDividends + buybacks $4.5B ÷ Owner Earnings $11.5B — this fiscal year
What this means
Of $11.5B Owner Earnings, $4.5B (39%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $4.5B buybacks. Net of $232M stock comp, the real buyback was about $4.3B. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does. This year's proportion is 39%; across the record (2023–2026) it is 45%, the capital-allocation section below.
- Investing or harvesting? 1.19×MaintainingCapex $177M ÷ depreciation & amortization as filed $149M
What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.
The promise and the pay packet
- Is the buyback buying ownership, or mopping up? 1.1%The count is risingStock compensation $232M (fiscal 2026), 1.1% of revenue · repurchases $4.5B · diluted shares +6.9% since 2023
What this means
Stock handed to employees is a real cost paid in the owner's own currency: it is charged against profit, but the shares it creates are permanent. Many companies repurchase stock at the same time, which looks like a return of capital and often is not — if the count barely moves, the cash merely cancelled the pay packet and bought the owner nothing. The three states worth telling apart are a count genuinely shrinking, a count standing still despite large repurchases, and a count rising because the issuance was never offset at all.
Graham’s defensive tests · 3 of 3 met
Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.
- Adequate size PassRevenue ≥ $2B · $20.2B
What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
- Strong liquidity PassCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 2.29×
What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
- Conservative debt PassDebt ≤ working capital · $0 vs $7.2B WC
What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
- Moderate price —P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $20.76/share (latest year $78.08), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $107.47/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.
Durability & moat, 2023–2026
Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.
- Profitable years 1 of 4
What this means
Lost money in 3 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Return on capital ≥ 15% 1 of 3 yrs
What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
- Operating margin −20% → 21% (2-yr avg ends)
In the filing’s words The filing ties gains to its own pricing, but names price competition too — pricing power that is real yet contested, not unopposed. The margin shows who is winning.
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −20% early to 21% lately, median −19% — pricing power intact or improving.
- Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital
What this means
The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.
- Worst year 2023 · −33.4% op. margin
What this means
Operations went underwater in 2023, understand why before trusting the good years.
- Share count +2.2%/yr
What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of fiscal year-end, Jul 3, 2026Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
- Cash & short-term investments$4.8B
- Receivables$4.7B
- Inventory$2.7B
- Other current assets$612M
- Other current liabilities$5.6B
From the company's latest filing.
How the cash was used, 2023–2026
Over the record, the business generated $10.7B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash builder, a large share of cash simply built up on the balance sheet.
- Reinvested$766M · 7%
- Buybacks$4.5B · 42%
- Retained (debt / cash)$5.4B · 51%
- Returned to owners$4.5B
45% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $0 as dividends and $4.5B as buybacks.
- Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span cash and short-term investments rose $4.5B.
- Average price paid for buybacks$1508.00
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 3M shares were bought for $4.5B, about $1508.00 each.
- Net change in share count6.9%
The diluted count rose from 145M to 155M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
- Dividend record—
No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.
- Return on what it retained169%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($2.5B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $4.1B, so each retained $1 added about 1.69 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.
Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.
Acquisitions & goodwill
from the balance sheet & the 4-year cash-flow recordGoodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.
$2.5B written down across 2 years (2023, 2025): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. A write-down costs no cash (the cash went out when the deal was signed), but it is management marking its own past judgment to market.
Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend summed across the company's full tagged history, write-downs across the 4-year record, from the company's own filings.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid.
- Insider ownership<1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2025 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
- Stock-based compensation$232M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares in fiscal 2026, 1.1% of revenue, equal to 1.9% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
What an owner would ask, FY2025
read the 10-K →- How much of the revenue rides on one buyer?≈$3.0B · 15% of revenue on the largest customer (TTM)
“For 2023, one customer accounted for 15% of our net revenue.”verify →
- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Revenue recognition, Inventory, Acquisitions as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →
The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.
Peers, Technology Hardware
The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each column names the period it is read over, and a median resting on fewer than three years carries that count beside it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.
| Company | Revenuelatest FY, USD | Gross marginmedian over the record | Op. marginmedian over the record | ROICmedian over the record | Owner earn. marginmedian over the record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HPQHP Inc. | $55.3B | 19% | 6.6% | 64%4y | 6% |
| HPEHewlett Packard Enterprise Company | $34.3B | 56%3y | 4.2% | 3% | 5% |
| SMCISuper Micro Computer Inc. | $22.0B | 15% | 4.3% | 12% | 2% |
| SNDKSandisk Corporation | $20.2B | 16% | -12.9% | -7% | -4% |
| WDCWestern Digital Corporation | $12.9B | 30% | 8.7% | 7% | 4% |
| STXSeagate Technology Holdings PLC | $12.2B | 29% | 14.1% | 30% | 11% |
| PANWPalo Alto Networks Inc. | $9.2B | 72% | -4.0% | -10% | 38% |
| NTAPNetApp Inc. | $6.9B | 67% | 18.8% | 70% | 20% |
| Group median | — | 29% | 5.4% | 9% | 5% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Sandisk Corporation has delivered.
—
9.0% = the 4.71% 10-year Treasury (Aug 18, 2026) + 4.29 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.71%, as of Aug 18, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.
Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.
Owner earnings $11.5B on 146M shares outstanding, per the 10-K cover, as of 2026-08-07; net cash $4.8B. The if-converted diluted count is 155M, 6% above the shares outstanding: the dilution overhang (convertibles, options) a buyer inherits. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Manual order: ← SNDA its page in the Manual SNDR →
Industry order: ← SMCIP the Technology Hardware chapter SSYS →