SanDisk Corp Stock Buy Recommendation Reiterated (SNDK)

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- SanDisk (Nasdaq:SNDK) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a buy with a ratings score of B- . The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and increase in stock price during the past year. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had somewhat weak growth in earnings per share.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Although SNDK's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23 is very low, it is currently higher than that of the industry average. To add to this, SNDK has a quick ratio of 1.72, which demonstrates the ability of the company to cover short-term liquidity needs.
• The revenue fell significantly faster than the industry average of 23.4%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues fell by 24.9%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• Compared to where it was 12 months ago, the stock is up, but it has so far lagged the appreciation in the S&P 500. The stock's price rise over the last year has driven it to a level which is somewhat expensive compared to the rest of its industry. We feel, however, that other strengths this company displays justify these higher price levels.
• SANDISK CORP has exprienced a steep decline in earnings per share in the most recent quarter in comparison to its performance from the same quarter a year ago. Earnings per share have declined over the last year. We anticipate that this should continue in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, SANDISK CORP reported lower earnings of $4.04 versus $5.42 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 56.9% in earnings ($1.74 versus $4.04).
• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Computers & Peripherals industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 94.8% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $248.39 million to $12.97 million.

Sandisk Corporation designs, develops, and manufactures NAND flash memory storage solutions that are used in various consumer electronics products. The company has a P/E ratio of 17.2, equal to the average computer hardware industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. SanDisk has a market cap of $10.91 billion and is part of the technology sector and computer hardware industry. Shares are down 8.2% year to date as of the close of trading on Tuesday.

You can view the full SanDisk Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

--Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff.

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