Samsung strike alert lifted! Where are memory stocks headed?
On April 28, after the US stock market closes, $Seagate Technology (STX.US)$will be the first to report its earnings, $SanDisk (SNDK.US)$and$Western Digital (WDC.US)$with the other following closely behind, releasing their Q3 2026 financial results on April 30 after the US stock market closes!
Currently, demand for enterprise SSDs and high-capacity HDDs is exploding as tech giants accelerate the expansion of AI data centers, leading to a full order book for enterprise storage. The supply side of NAND remains restrained, driving SSD prices steadily higher, while HDDs continue to see rising demand due to their irreplaceability in cold data, archive storage, and AI data lakes.
With the three storage giants competing head-to-head, who will continue the meteoric rise in share price with their latest earnings?
![[Clap]The storage industry faces a major earnings test! On April 28, after the US stock market closes, $Seagate Technology (STX.US)$will be the first to report its earnings, $SanDisk (SNDK.US)$and$Western Digital (WDC.US)$with the other following closely behind, releasing their Q3 2026 financial results on April 30 after the US stock market closes! Currently, demand for enterprise SSDs and high-capacity HDDs is exploding as tech giants accelerate the expansion of AI data centers, leading to a full order book for enterprise storage. The supply side of NAND remains restrained, driving SSD prices steadily higher, while HDDs continue to see rising demand due to their irreplaceability in cold data, archive storage, and AI data lakes. With the three storage giants competing head-to-head, who will continue the meteoric rise in share price with their latest earnings?[Shocked] [Clap]Seagate Technology, the first to take the stage, appears extremely confident! Institutions are bullish across the boardBank of America raised its price target from $605 to $700, maintaining a Buy rating; Barclays upgraded its rating to Overweight, increasing the price target from $425 to $625, emphasizing the impact of pricing dynamics and the industry's duopoly structure.On the product front, Seagate Technology continues to make strides,successively launching the One Touch desktop external hard drive, FireCuda X Vault hard drive, and LaCie 8big Pro5 multi-disk RAID storage solution, continuously expanding its product portfolio. The previous quarter delivered a crushing performance...](https://nnqimage.futunn.com/sns_client_feed/999982/20260428/web-1777356600379-fH3cQb4Jad.png/big?area=2&is_public=true&imageMogr2/ignore-error/1/format/webp)
Institutions are bullish across the boardBank of America raised its price target from $605 to $700, maintaining a Buy rating; Barclays upgraded its rating to Overweight, increasing the price target from $425 to $625, emphasizing the impact of pricing dynamics and the industry's duopoly structure.On the product front, Seagate Technology continues to make strides,successively launching the One Touch desktop external hard drive, FireCuda X Vault hard drive, and LaCie 8big Pro5 multi-disk RAID storage solution, continuously expanding its product portfolio.
Last quarter’s results were nothing short of impressive:Revenue surged 21.5% year-over-year, with both gross margin and operating margin hitting all-time highs, driving the stock price up 19% post-earnings and leading the ‘Big Four’ in the storage sector to new record highs!
and issued a bright three-quarter guidance — projecting revenue of $2.9 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $3.40; Bank of America optimistically forecasted its Q3 revenue to reach as high as $3.02 billion, with earnings per share at $3.70!
Following closely behind, SanDisk is undeniably the 'dark horse of gains'!📈
For the upcoming FY26Q3 earnings report, SanDisk provided a revenue guidance midpoint of $4.6 billion, with a non-GAAP gross margin guidance of 65%-67%.Bloomberg consensus forecasts are even more optimistic, expecting revenue of $4.71 billion (up 178% year-over-year) and net profit of $2.2 billion (up 214% year-over-year).
However, there is currently significant divergence among institutions: Bernstein believes the market underestimates the cycle’s sustainability, with the current forward P/E ratio of around 9x below the historical favorable range, setting a bull target price at $3,000; JPMorgan, on the other hand, warns that new capacity coming online after 2027 may recreate a 'boom-bust' cycle, suggesting that current high profitability might already be at its cyclical peak.
In comparison with the previous two,Although Western Digital reported explosive results last quarter (revenue reached $3.02 billion, net profit surged 210% year-over-year to $1.84 billion), its stock price unexpectedly dropped over 10% on the first trading day post-earnings.
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Nevertheless, Western Digital remains confident, as its production capacity for 2026 is almost entirely sold out, with formal purchase orders signed with its top seven customers, covering delivery schedules up to 2028!The guidance for the third fiscal quarter was equally impressive: revenue midpoint of $3.2 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $2.30, significantly surpassing analysts' expectations at the time.Institutions such as Morgan Stanley and Citi reiterated their positive outlook, believing that the irreplaceability of HDDs in AI data lakes remains underappreciated.Can Western Digital stage a comeback and break the post-earnings gloom from last quarter? It’s worth waiting to see!
🚩Intensifying institutional competition, the performance showdown among the three storage giants has reached a fever pitch.Last quarter, these three stocks showed markedly different post-earnings performances: $Seagate Technology (STX.US)$Leading the sector higher, $SanDisk (SNDK.US)$Surging nearly 15% after hours, $Western Digital (WDC.US)$While on the first day post-earnings it plunged over 10%, creating a stark contrast!Currently, the implied volatility of all three is at recent highs, with the options market already pricing in a two-way move post-earnings.
So, in this earnings battle, who will stand out and achieve the highest gain on the first day? Rewards are coming, quickly participate in the guessing!👇👇
🎁[Prize Activity]
Big Jump Competition:Choose the stock you think will have the highest increase on the first day after earnings release. Fellow investors who predict correctly will share the rewards.10,000 points!
(For example, if 100 fellow investors guess correctly, each person will receive 100 points; the first-day jump will be based on the US stock performance)
Note: The prize activity will end at 4:00 Beijing time on May 1st; rewards will be distributed uniformly after this earnings season ends.
![[Clap]The storage industry faces a major earnings test! On April 28, after the US stock market closes, $Seagate Technology (STX.US)$will be the first to report its earnings, $SanDisk (SNDK.US)$and$Western Digital (WDC.US)$with the other following closely behind, releasing their Q3 2026 financial results on April 30 after the US stock market closes! Currently, demand for enterprise SSDs and high-capacity HDDs is exploding as tech giants accelerate the expansion of AI data centers, leading to a full order book for enterprise storage. The supply side of NAND remains restrained, driving SSD prices steadily higher, while HDDs continue to see rising demand due to their irreplaceability in cold data, archive storage, and AI data lakes. With the three storage giants competing head-to-head, who will continue the meteoric rise in share price with their latest earnings?[Shocked] [Clap]Seagate Technology, the first to take the stage, appears extremely confident! Institutions are bullish across the boardBank of America raised its price target from $605 to $700, maintaining a Buy rating; Barclays upgraded its rating to Overweight, increasing the price target from $425 to $625, emphasizing the impact of pricing dynamics and the industry's duopoly structure.On the product front, Seagate Technology continues to make strides,successively launching the One Touch desktop external hard drive, FireCuda X Vault hard drive, and LaCie 8big Pro5 multi-disk RAID storage solution, continuously expanding its product portfolio. The previous quarter delivered a crushing performance...](https://nnqimage.futunn.com/sns_client_feed/999982/20260428/web-1777357391066-l6Oo53zmCQ.webp/big?area=2&is_public=true&imageMogr2/ignore-error/1/format/webp)
![[Clap]The storage industry faces a major earnings test! On April 28, after the US stock market closes, $Seagate Technology (STX.US)$will be the first to report its earnings, $SanDisk (SNDK.US)$and$Western Digital (WDC.US)$with the other following closely behind, releasing their Q3 2026 financial results on April 30 after the US stock market closes! Currently, demand for enterprise SSDs and high-capacity HDDs is exploding as tech giants accelerate the expansion of AI data centers, leading to a full order book for enterprise storage. The supply side of NAND remains restrained, driving SSD prices steadily higher, while HDDs continue to see rising demand due to their irreplaceability in cold data, archive storage, and AI data lakes. With the three storage giants competing head-to-head, who will continue the meteoric rise in share price with their latest earnings?[Shocked] [Clap]Seagate Technology, the first to take the stage, appears extremely confident! Institutions are bullish across the boardBank of America raised its price target from $605 to $700, maintaining a Buy rating; Barclays upgraded its rating to Overweight, increasing the price target from $425 to $625, emphasizing the impact of pricing dynamics and the industry's duopoly structure.On the product front, Seagate Technology continues to make strides,successively launching the One Touch desktop external hard drive, FireCuda X Vault hard drive, and LaCie 8big Pro5 multi-disk RAID storage solution, continuously expanding its product portfolio. The previous quarter delivered a crushing performance...](https://nnqimage.futunn.com/sns_client_feed/999982/20260428/web-1777357792923-AGxJ2jruvk.webp/big?area=2&is_public=true&imageMogr2/ignore-error/1/format/webp)
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