Sanmina Stock Plunges 20% Despite Strong Earnings Beat as Revenue Guidance Disappoints Investors Today

Shares of Sanmina Corporation tumbled Tuesday morning, falling 20.50% to $166.15, wiping out $42.75 in value even after the electronics manufacturing company reported earnings that significantly beat Wall Street's expectations for its fiscal third quarter.

The steep selloff highlights how sharply investor sentiment can turn on forward guidance, even when a company delivers a clear earnings beat on both the top and bottom lines.

A Clear Earnings Beat

Sanmina posted quarterly earnings results for its fiscal third quarter of 2026 on Monday, July 27, reporting earnings of $3.31 per share, beating estimates of $2.83 by 48 cents. Other analyst trackers put the size of the beat even larger, with the company topping consensus estimates of $2.77 by 54 cents per share, according to FiscalAI.

The company's revenue performance was similarly strong relative to expectations. Sanmina reported revenue of $3.46 billion during the quarter, compared with analyst expectations of roughly $3.40 billion, representing year-on-year revenue growth of 69.7% and beating Wall Street's estimates by 1.8%.

Impressive Underlying Growth Trends

Beyond simply beating estimates, Sanmina's underlying earnings trajectory showed accelerating momentum heading into the report. In the quarter, Sanmina reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.31, up sharply from $1.53 in the same quarter a year earlier, with the company's two-year annual earnings-per-share growth of 41.3% coming in higher than its five-year trend. Analysts noted that Sanmina's optimistic earnings guidance for the next quarter also blew past expectations, and its adjusted operating income outperformed Wall Street's estimates by a wide margin.

Where the Disappointment Came From

Despite those clear positives, one specific piece of forward-looking guidance appears to have driven Tuesday's steep selloff. On the other hand, the company's revenue guidance for the next quarter missed expectations, even as company management guided for a 64.6% year-on-year increase in sales for the coming quarter. Overall, analysts characterized the quarter as solid with some key areas of upside, but noted the market seemed to be hoping for even more, with the stock trading down 5.5% to $197.44 immediately after Monday's report before extending losses further into Tuesday's session.

Updated Full-Year Guidance

Alongside its third-quarter results, Sanmina also provided updated guidance for the current quarter and the full fiscal year. The company updated its fourth-quarter 2026 guidance to a range of $3.05 to $3.35 in earnings per share, and raised its full fiscal-year 2026 guidance to a range of $11.90 to $12.20 in earnings per share. Wall Street separately projected that Sanmina's full-year earnings per share would grow 17.2%, from $10.52 to $12.33, over the next 12 months.

A Volatile Trading Session

Sanmina's stock initially moved higher on Monday following the earnings release before reversing course as investors digested the guidance details more fully. SANM stock traded up 47 cents during midday trading on Monday, reaching $208.90, with a trading volume of roughly 1.2 million shares compared with its average volume of about 943,000 shares. That initial positive reaction gave way to the sharp decline that carried into Tuesday's session, as investors focused increasingly on the revenue guidance shortfall rather than the substantial earnings beat.

A Pullback That Preceded the Earnings Report

Tuesday's decline adds to a difficult recent stretch for Sanmina shares, which had already been retreating in the weeks leading up to the earnings report. Sanmina's share price had pulled back over the past month, with a 30-day share price return down 16.4% heading into the report, even as the stock's momentum over longer time horizons remained strong, highlighted by a year-to-date share price return of 26.7% and a five-year total shareholder return of more than four times the original investment.

Company Fundamentals and Valuation

Beyond the immediate earnings reaction, several other financial metrics offer context for how Sanmina's business and valuation currently stand. The company reported a return on equity of 16.23% and a net margin of 2.29% for the quarter, along with a market capitalization of approximately $11.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.16, and a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80. The stock's 52-week range spans from a low of $97.76 to a high of $288.68, reflecting substantial volatility even before Tuesday's sharp move.

Insider Selling Activity

In the weeks leading up to the earnings report, several company insiders had also reduced their holdings in Sanmina stock, activity that some investors monitor closely for signals about management's own confidence. Chief Financial Officer Jonathan P. Faust sold 10,076 shares of Sanmina stock on May 29, at an average price of $265.80, for a total transaction value of roughly $2.68 million, a sale that was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan and represented an 11.57% decrease in his overall ownership stake. Separately, Director David V. Hedley III sold 500 shares of the company's stock on May 1 at an average price of $219.52.

Institutional Investor Activity

Ownership data also shows a broadly active institutional investor base around Sanmina's stock heading into the earnings report, with positions moving in both directions across different funds. Roughly 245 institutional investors added shares of Sanmina stock to their portfolios in the most recent quarter tracked, while 208 institutional investors decreased their positions over the same period, reflecting a mixed but active level of engagement from large investors even before Tuesday's sharp selloff.

With Sanmina's updated full-year guidance now pointing toward continued earnings growth despite the revenue guidance shortfall that triggered Tuesday's decline, investors will be watching closely in the coming quarters to see whether the company's next-quarter sales materialize closer to its own more optimistic earnings outlook or continue to disappoint relative to Wall Street's revenue expectations. Given how sharply the stock has moved on both the initial earnings beat and the subsequent guidance-driven selloff, Sanmina's next several trading sessions are likely to remain closely watched as investors work to reconcile the company's strong profitability trends with its more measured outlook for near-term sales growth.