To all: Maybe we are all overreacting on the negative side. The
following article seems pretty positive on Iomega's earnings.
6:58 PM (ET) 7/18
Iomega's Sales Boom Continues
ROY, Utah (AP) -- Iomega Corp., whose disk drives and tapes have exploded in popularity this year, on Thursday reported a $14.1 million second-quarter profit on sales that are more than five times better than a year ago.
The company's profit amounted to 11 cents per share for the quarter that ended June 30. It lost $1.9 million, or 2 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.
Revenue was $283.6 million, up from $52.6 million in the same quarter a year ago.
In a more meaningful measure of the company's growth, Iomega's second-quarter revenue was up 28 percent from the $222 million it achieved in the first three months of the year.
The company reported the performance after the stock market closed. Iomega shares finished up $1.87 1/2 to $28 on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. Its stock has swung wildly for much of the year, reaching $54 on May 22 but tumbling to just under $18 by the end of June.
Earlier Thursday, the company announced it was buying a manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia from Quantum Corp. for $28 million. Iomega chairman Kim Edwards said the new factory will supplement its existing manufacturing in Roy, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City.
Iomega's Zip, Jaz and Ditto 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.
Several PC makers, including Packard Bell Electronics Inc. and International Business Machines Corp., plan to install Iomega's drives on the machines they sell to consumers this fall.
The company's stock is closely followed on the Motley Fools investment advice bulletin board on America Online and has gained enormous attention on Wall Street in recent months.
For the first six months of the year, Iomega earned $24.2 million, or 19 cents per share, on sales of $505.6 million.
It lost $3.4 million, or 3 cents per share, on sales of $92.7 million in the first six months of 1995.
Sounds pretty positive to me. Dave |
