Earnings flash (memory): SanDisk delivers big quarter

SanDisk CEO Eli Harari said he was encouraged by "improved industry fundamentals." And there's a good reason for that. The company crushed third quarter estimates with a blowout quarter.

The flash memory card maker reported net income of $231 million, or 99 cents a share, on revenue of $935 million, up 14 percent from a year ago. Those results reversed a year ago loss of $166 million, or 74 cents a share. Excluding a bevy of items---acquisition expenses, option compensation and interest expenses related to retiring debt---SanDisk reported earnings of $176 million, or 75 cents a share (statement).

To put all of those moving parts in perspective, Wall Street was expecting earnings of 26 cents a share on $787.9 million. Harari also added that he expects strong pricing and orders to continue into the fourth quarter.

A few odds and ends:

• SanDisk shipped 31 percent more units compared to a year ago;
• Average price per gigabyte sold fell 43 percent from a year ago;
• Average retail card capacity was 4.22 GB, up 46 percent from a year ago.

Overall, things are looking up in the storage industry. Separately, Seagate reported fiscal first quarter non-GAAP earnings of 58 cents a share, 11 cents better than estimates. The company also raised its outlook for the second quarter (statement).