SanDisk, Western Digital Drop 10% as Guidance Misses — SkimNews
SkimNews Take
Solid earnings couldn't hold the bid, meaning AI-adjacent names had been priced for perfection — the rotation-into-bitcoin-and-gold framing may be cover for plain de-risking after crowded long positioning.
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- SanDisk (SNDK) and Western Digital (WDC) each fell roughly 10% in pre-market trading Thursday despite reporting strong quarterly results, with both stocks now trading roughly 50% below their all-time highs.
- SanDisk posted record Q4 revenue of $8.97 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $39.25, but its Q1 revenue guidance of $10.7 billion fell short of the $11.2 billion analysts had estimated, along with softer EPS guidance.
- Western Digital delivered revenue of $3.75 billion (up 44% YoY) and a 54.4% gross margin, beating expectations, but after a roughly 500% 12-month run investors wanted a bigger blowout beat.
- Over the past 12 months, SanDisk has gained more than 3,000% and Western Digital more than 550%, both propelled by the AI storage boom that left crypto and precious metals in the rearview.
- SanDisk's board approved an additional $14 billion share buyback program, bringing the company's total authorization to $15.5 billion.
- Bitcoin is holding above $64,000 and shrugged off the Coldcard exploit with little reaction, while gold has surged more than 7% over the past several days — indicators the article frames as signs of capital rotating out of AI winners.
Why it matters: Two AI-boom darlings that gained 3,000% and 550% over 12 months just gave a 10% pre-market rebuke on guidance rather than results — a signal that the AI trade's bar has shifted from beating estimates to blowing them out. With bitcoin holding above $64K and gold up 7%+ in days, the article's thesis is that capital is beginning to rotate from crowded AI positions into crypto and precious metals.
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