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Investing.com -- SanDisk (SNDK) (NASDAQ:SNDKV) has announced plans to increase the prices of all its NAND products by over 10% starting from April 1, according to a letter sent to its customers on March 7. The price hike will affect all products that are aimed at channels and consumer customers. Mizuho (NYSE:MFG) TMT Sector Specialist, Jordan Klein, who highlighted the news, noted that Sandisk’s stock has significantly outperformed all other semiconductor stocks since its spin-out from Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) in February.
Klein also pointed out that Kioxia Holdings Corp (TYO:285A), a peer of Sandisk, saw its stock rise by 17% in Japan. Sandisk shares its fabrication capacity and NAND output with Kioxia.
The decision to raise prices comes in response to a tight supply situation caused by tariff changes, inventory reductions by consumers, and ongoing aggressive cutbacks in NAND production by all suppliers.
Klein noted that despite the current economic uncertainty, which has made people wary of commodity memory, this move aligns with recent industry forecasts. These forecasts predict a major shift in NAND pricing from negative mid-teen quarter-on-quarter declines from Q4 to Q1, to flat to down 5% in Q2, and then an increase of 10-15% by Q3.
Interestingly, despite sharing fabrication facilities and NAND output with Sandisk, Kioxia trades at approximately a 40% premium compared to Sandisk. Klein suggested that investors should aim to be two quarters ahead of the cycle turn when buying memory. Currently, Sandisk trades at 5 times its projected ’26 EBITDA and 9 times its EPS.