Local and wireless phone services provider Cincinnati Bell Inc. said Thursday its board of directors authorized the repurchase of up to $150 million of its common shares over the next two years. Cincinnati Bell expects to fund the share repurchase program with available free cash flow and buy back stock either through the open market or private transactions. The regional phone company also recently announced decent Q4 earnings, beating Wall Street's expectations. The stock trades for 6x cash flow.

Database manager Teradata Corp. said it will repurchase up to $250 million of its common stock over a two-year period. The company also said it expects earnings and revenue to rise in 2008 on higher demand for its enterprise data warehousing and enterprise analytics services. KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Matt Summerville kept his "Buy" rating and $35 price target, and said Teradata sells a high-quality product that is needed in the global marketplace. The stock trades for 10x cash flow.

Motor racing promotor International Speedway Corp. said recently its board authorized the repurchase of up to $100 million of the company's Class A common stock. The stock trades for 7x cash flow.

Varian Inc. said recently that it established a program to buy back up to $100 million of its stock. The scientific instruments maker bought back 1.7 million shares under a $100 million stock repurchase program authorized in January 2007. The company has now replenished the program with $100 million in new authorizations through the end of 2009. Varian said because of its strong balance sheet it can buy back stock and continue buying other companies that complement its existing line of products. The stock trades for 11x cash flow.

Equifax Inc., a provider of employment and income verification and human resources outsourcing services, said last week that its board of directors approved the repurchase of up to $250 million of common stock. Another item to note: Funds controlled by ValueAct Capital Management LP recently reported increasing their stake in Equifax Inc. to 8.3 percent, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The private equity firm beneficially owns 10.9 million shares, or an 8.3 percent stake based on 131.8 million shares outstanding as of Sept. 30. The stock trades for 9x cash flow.

Compuware Corp., which makes computer testing, development and management software, said its board authorized an additional repurchase of up to $750 million worth of common stock, in an effort to reduce its outstanding common share count to 200 million shares. The stock trades for 9x cash flow.

Actuate's board has authorized the increase of the existing stock buyback program by more than 50% for the first quarter of fiscal 2008. Earlier in the month, CEO Peter Cittadini bought 22,000 shares of the company at a price of $4.65 a share, while CFO Daniel Gaudreau purchased 100,000 shares for $4.87. In November last year, Cittadini bought 15,000 shares at $7.45 and Gaudreau purchased 30,000 shares for $7.47 a share. On Jan. 31, the business intelligence software provider reported record revenues and earnings for the fourth quarter and the year ended Dec 31, 2007. This marked the second consecutive year of record results. The company's operating margins were strong and its cash flows robust. The economy is slowing and Actuate has high exposure to the financial services industry. While this may cause some concern, the adoption of its Open Source BI has been fairly strong, and I expect this to continue. Also, the company is building on its overseas exposure. JMP Securities upgraded its rating for Actuate to strong buy from market outperform, while reiterating a price target of $7. The analysts said in their note to clients earlier this month, "We like Actuate because it is one of the few remaining independent business intelligence vendors and has a differentiated product strategy that leverages open source software. We believe Actuate management might be overly conservative with its 10% license downside guidance for 2008. Our industry sources suggest that there could be more upside to the 2008 license number than downside," JMP Securities added. Actuate has been generating compelling growth in revenues and earnings. Its performance on other financial metrics has also been strong. The company offers an return on equity of 22.56%, no debt and has a PEG ratio of 0.70. Shares are down around 40% year to date, trading significantly below their 52-week high of $8.99. I consider this as a good opportunity to buy Actuate. I believe the company will generate good returns over the next 12 to 18 months.

The Santa Clara, CA based computer software maker announced a plan to buy back $750 million in stock through July 29, 2009, higher than the $500 million program analysts had expected. The company recently reported solid fourth quarter earnings and provided guidance that exceeded expectations on the Street . In the fourth quarter, net sales jumped to $356.5 million from $305.2 million, helped by 24 percent growth in McAfee's international business. Net income for the period, excluding items, was $75.1 million or 46 cents per share, 1 penny above analyst estimates. For the full year, net income grew 21 percent to $167 million, or $1.02 per share, from $137.5 million, or 84 cents per share. CEO David DeWalt noted that while "I do worry a little bit about the macro [economic] climate, particularly consumers…we've been doing well. We've got new partnerships and a bunch of new contracts that keep us going." Analysts were more than pleased with the news of a solid Q4, and full year performance topped off by solid guidance. Daniel Ives of FBR Research noted, "While macro uncertainty remains a concern, McAfee is not seeing any signs of weakness in the field, which echoes positive comments we have heard from other security software vendors over the last few weeks." Katherine Egbert of Jeffries & Co. also pointed out that, "we believe that McAfee is attractive at current levels, especially given the relative economic safety of the core security franchise." She has a BUY rating and a $43 price target, noting not just guidance but also the buyback.