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NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Sandisk Corp. fell in Wednesday morning trading after an Oppenheimer analyst downgraded the flash drive maker on concerns of increased competition and declining market share.

Analyst Vijay Rakesh downgraded the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company to "Neutral," or "Hold," from "Buy." He does not have a price rating on the company's stock.

As competitors Samsung and Hynix improve the technology that forms the core of flash drives, NAND, Sandisk's market share and prices are falling, Rakesh said.

The third quarter is forecast to be strong for Sandisk, but performance may turn negative in future periods as NAND supply dwindles, he said.

"Sandisk has been a momentum stock and usually never trades on strict valuation metrics, but rather on supply-demand balances, contract and spot pricing trends, market share and royalty upside," Rakesh said in a client note.

Shares of Sandisk fell $1.26, or 2.4 percent, to $50.42 in morning trading.