Why SanDisk Earnings Are Poised to Soar

SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) will release its quarterly report on Wednesday, and investors couldn't be more excited about the company's prospects right now. With huge demand for the SanDisk's memory products, SanDisk earnings are seen doubling this year, with an even bigger year-over-year jump expected for its third-quarter results.

SanDisk has benefited from the big jump in demand for data storage in the wake of rising volumes of information collection by companies seeking to perform big-data analysis to improve their results. Both SanDisk and rival Micron Technology (MU -0.74%) have tapped the recovering flash-memory business, but SanDisk has arguably done a better job than Micron of making the most of the opportunity. With smart strategic moves like partnering with Western Digital to create solid-state hybrid drives as well as SanDisk offering its own solid-state storage device, SanDisk is tapping all the potential it has. Let's take an early look at what's been happening with SanDisk over the past quarter and what we're likely to see in its report.

Stats on SanDisk

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Can SanDisk earnings keep climbing higher this quarter?
In recent months, analysts have gotten even more excited about SanDisk earnings prospects. They've increased their third-quarter estimates by nearly 20% and added 15% to their calls for the full 2013 year. The stock has also kept climbing, adding another 3% since mid-July.

SanDisk brought considerable positive momentum into the quarter, with its previous quarter's results coming in very strong. Both revenue and earnings were above what investors had expected to see, and the company issued optimistic guidance for the third quarter as well. A rise in flash memory-chip prices suggested that both SanDisk and Micron were benefiting from the changing industry environment, and despite a momentary scare about potentially falling smartphone sales hurting flash-memory prices, both companies have seen their stocks recover.

For SanDisk, though, smart strategic moves have made a huge difference. In August, the company completed its acquisition of SMART Storage Systems, which develops enterprise-level solid-state drives. Big data has greatly increased the need for companies to make the most of their storage capabilities, and SanDisk's acquisition could help it boost its presence in the big data space. At the same time, for clients that don't need lightning-fast access to all of their data, SanDisk's collaborations with Western Digital have helped the partnership combine the cost-effectiveness of traditional hard-disk drives with the speed advantages of solid-state drives in a single hybrid-drive product.

Yet SanDisk's competitors are making moves of their own. Micron has completed its acquisition of Elpida, giving Micron access to Elpida's prestigious customer base. If Micron succeeds in building a long-term relationship to supply chips for popular products like the iPhone, then it could dislodge SanDisk's leadership position in the space. At the same time, Western Digital rival Seagate Technology has chosen to build its own hybrid and full-solid-state drives to compete directly against SanDisk and Micron, rather than seeking a partnership.

In the SanDisk earnings report, watch for more insight on where the company expects to go next in crafting a longer-term strategic vision. With rapid evolution in the memory and data-storage industry, SanDisk can't afford to coast on past successes but rather needs to keep building on them to stay ahead of its rivals.

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