Sandisk Stock Is Up 695% in 2026 and This Market Indicator Predicted It. Here’s What It Says About 2027.
Last year, semiconductor company Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) was the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC). Historically, stocks that have claimed that title have often recorded strong returns in the following year.
Indeed, Sandisk shares have advanced 695% in 2026, as the company has benefited from insatiable demand for memory chips fueled by artificial intelligence boom. Here’s what investors should know.
Missed AI’s “Act 1”? Act 2 Could Be 15x Bigger. Most investors think they missed the AI boat because they didn’t buy Nvidia in 2005. But according to our analysts, we’re only at the end of “Act 1″—the R&D phase. “Act 2” is the global rollout. Continue »
Image source: Getty Images.
The best-performing S&P 500 stock in any given year generally posts big gains in the next year
Famous investor Peter Lynch once warned, “Selling your winners and holding your losers is like cutting the flowers and watering the weeds.” Another way to think about Lynch’s advice is that great stocks — stakes in quality businesses purchased at reasonable prices — can compound wealth over long periods.
So, rather than selling a stock simply because its price has dropped, investors should focus on whether the underlying business can still create value for shareholders. Selling would be nonsensical if the investment thesis remains intact. Winners tend to keep on winning.
That observation helps explain why stocks that perform well in one calendar year often do well in the next. The chart below lists the best-performing S&P 500 stocks in each of the last 10 years, and it shows how they performed the following year.
Data source: YCharts. The asterisk indicates that Sandisk’s return is subject to change because 2026 has not ended.
As shown above, the best-performing S&P 500 stock in each calendar year over the past decade has gained a median of 91% in the following year. By comparison, the S&P 500 achieved a median annual return of 18% over the same 10-year period.
So, readers should ask themselves which stock is leading the S&P 500 in 2026, as history says it’s likely to deliver robust returns in 2027. The answer is Sandisk.
Of course, the rankings could change in the remaining months of 2026, and investors should never rely too heavily on any single stock market indicator. How Sandisk actually performs next year will depend on its financial results and market sentiment, both of which are tied to the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
