Sandisk Weakness Hits Other Chip, Flash Makers (SNDK, MU, BRCM, NVDA, QCOM, AAPL)

Sandisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) had already guided its quarterly earnings down, but last night’s report also lowered the company’s forecast by about $250 million (our coverage here). That is likely the cause of the drooping prices for Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), and Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA). Only Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) is managing to avoid a hit today.

Micron’s shares are down about -4.2% at $6.71 in a 52-week range of $3.97-$11.83. Micron’s NAND Flash memory business was expected to get a boost from the release of Ultrabook laptop computers from a number of makers later this year. Sandisk, too, was expecting some help from the Ultrabook releases, but the company’s guidance put a halt to that.

Broadcom and Nvidia are also feeling the effects of Sandisk’s earnings report, but not to the same degree as Micron. Broadcom’s shares are down 1.4% at $35.23 in a 52-week range of $27.59-$41.00, and Nvidia’s shares are off -0.4% at $13.60 in a 52-week range of $11.47-$20.52.

Only Qualcomm is dodging Sandisk’s bullet, up nearly 1% at $63.16 in a 52-week range of $45.98-$68.87. The company is simply better positioned in the mobile device market than any of the others, primarily because of its role as a supplier to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Paul Ausick