Did ValueAct Influence Microsoft’s Stock Repurchase Program?

With activist investor ValueAct Capital pressuring Micrososft (MSFT) to increase shareholder value—already winning concessions from top brass to meet regularly and landing a seat on the board—either Redmond’s new $40 billion share repurchase program is superbly timed, or we’re seeing the fund’s influence yet again.

ValueAct already has received some credit for Chief Executive Steve Ballmer’s decision to step down in the next year so it’s hard not to see its hand in this latest share buyback program, which comes just as the vendor’s prior $40 billion stock repurchase initiative is set to expire at the close of this month. In addition, Microsoft has upped its quarterly dividend by 5 cents to 28 cents from 23 cents, a 22 percent increase.

“These actions reflect a continued commitment to returning cash to our shareholders,” said Amy Hood, Microsoft chief financial officer.

With Microsoft’s stock stuck in neutral for the past decade, the company seems intent upon returning to its shareholders a portion of the billions in profit it banks every quarter. Still, under the current buyback program, Microsoft has purchased but $4.6 billion in stock its fiscal year ended June 30, less than half of the $11.5 billion it bought back in fiscal 2011.

Shareholders benefit from stock buyback program because it lowers the number of shares available on the open market, boosting the remaining shares’ value in the process. Last year, Apple (AAPL) bumped a stock buyback program to $60 billion from $10 billion, a repurchase plan expected to run through 2015. And, this past July the company said it already had ponied up some $16 billion to buy back shares in Q3.

In August, activist investor Carl Icahn, at the time still punching in a fight to block founder Michael Dell’s $24.8 billion bid to take Dell (DELL) private—a skirmish he lost last week—bought a $1.5 billion stake in Apple and immediately began pressuring Chief Executive Tim Cook to initiate a buyback at the current share price, contending Apple can borrow money cheaply to finance a repurchase.

“This is a no-brainer to go buy stock in a company that can go borrow,” he’s quoted as saying. “Buy the company here and even without earnings growth, we think it ought to be worth $625,” he said.

It appears that ValueAct and Icahn make for two peas in a pod.