The second-to-last stock utilized to turn $100 into more than $1 billion during the course of a decade is SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK), creator of flash memory and removable USB drives. In 2005 (the year the stock outperformed all of its large-cap peers in the basket of stocks we've used for this purpose), SanDisk acquired FlashCP technology through the purchase of Israeli company MDRM. On the first trading day of 2005, SNDK was hovering at $25.07. Our portfolio, now worth more than $179 million, is able to invest in 7,145,882 shares. For the record, I've switched over to Excel to make these calculations; my calculator has simply run out of digit spaces.
Were it not for the hindsight that allows us to know that SNDK grows to become 2005's top performer, an investor might have bailed out of this trade during the first half of the year. Through mid-July, SNDK moved steadily sideways, trading between the $25 and $30 levels. But a fire of momentum was ignited beneath the shares toward the end of the summer, and a powerful rally ensued. By the year's close, SanDisk shares were trading at $62.82, a 151% advance, which topped the charts. As the calendar turned over to 2006, our portfolio was up to $448,904,325.
Next: Step 10: Allegheny Technologies (ATI), 2006
Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-31-2007 @ 4:12PM
Dan said...
Miss Beth,
This series of articles is pure fluff and far below the average article here.