IOMEGA SHARES LEAP 26%.

Byline: Associated Press 

Why oh why, Iomega?

Iomega Corp. stock, a favorite of Motley Fools on-line investment followers and Wall Street short sellers, soared 26 percent Tuesday, building on an 11 percent jump from the day before, as the computer-component maker announced a stock split and held a boisterous annual meeting.

Shareholders gave a standing ovation to Kim Edwards, the chief executive who in two years turned the sleepy maker of devices called Bernoulli drives into one of the fastest-growing companies in technology.

Iomega's drives and storage disks have become popular accessories to PCs for people who want to have a second way, after their hard drive, to store large amounts of data. Far more data can be stored on its disks than on ordinary floppy diskettes.

The company's Zip, Jaz and Ditto drives pushed Iomega's revenue to $222 million in the first three months of the year, up from $40 million in the same time a year ago.

Iomega's stock traded as low as $2 per share in 1994 and $10 a year ago. It closed Tuesday up $10.62-1/2 to $51.87-1/2 on Nasdaq. On Monday, it had climbed from $37.12-1/2 to $41.25.

The price growth is even greater than it appears. Iomega stock split 3-for-1 in January, and the company now plans to have it split 2-for-1 on May 6. Chairman David Dunn said having a greater number of lower-priced shares helps the company's employee stock incentive programs.

Iomega, based in Roy, 30 miles north of Salt Lake City, has boosted its employment from 800 to 2,000 since 1994.

Edwards transformed the company's market focus from engineers to consumers. He said the company will expand further by cutting the price of Zip drives.