What: Shares of data storage specialist SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) were up 19% at 2:40 p.m. Thursday following a strong second-quarter earnings report.
So what: Revenue declined 24% to $1.24 billion, which was about what the Street was expecting. However, the company posted non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.66, which utterly crushed the consensus estimate of $0.34 per share. Prior to the release, shares had fallen 45% year-to-date, so investors are welcoming a bit of good news for a change.
Now what: Earlier this year, SanDisk delivered the gloomy news that it was experiencing some manufacturing problems creating low yields, which was hurting its inventory levels and ability to meet demand. The company also said it lost a key customer, without specifying who, leading it to also cut its outlook at the time. On the conference call last night, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said that SanDisk's 15-nanometer process is ramping and that the inventory challenges that have been plaguing the company for the past two quarters "are now behind us."
Meanwhile, enterprise solid state drives, or SSDs, are experiencing better-than-expected demand. SanDisk's Optimus Max SAS SSD is offering a compelling value proposition for OEMs to upgrade from traditional hard disk drives, or HDDs. Things may finally be turning around for SanDisk after a tough few quarters.
