Blackstone recently announced that the Board of Directors of its general partner, Blackstone Group Management L.L.C., has authorized the repurchase of up to $500 million of Blackstone common units and Blackstone Holdings units. Under this unit repurchase program, units may be repurchased from time to time in open market transactions, in privately negotiated transactions or otherwise. Blackstone Group also announced that it will spend as much as $930 million for GSO Capital Partners LP, a hedge fund that helps finance private equity buyouts and manages debt investments, the New York-based private equity firm said. “We believe that our common units are undervalued,” said Mr. James, “and we therefore intend to offset the issuance of Holdings units to the owners of GSO by repurchasing the same amount of units from existing holders.” The stock trades for 6x cash flow.

Hearst-Argyle Television has seen aggressive insider purchases in the last month. The Hearst Family Trust bought more than 400,000 shares of the company in December between $21.31 and $22.37 a share. Early last month, privately held newspaper publisher Hearst Corp. said it plans to purchase up to eight million Series A common shares of Hearst-Argyle Television. This purchase would boost Hearst's stake in HTV to about 82%. Hearst had, in August, made a tender offer of $23.50 for the HTV shares that it did not already own. The tender offer failed, however, and expired on Oct. 12. HTV's revenue dropped 3.4% year over year, or by $6.2 million, in the third quarter to $176.8 million. The downturn was primarily due to three reasons. First, the U.S. political cycle had more elections and, therefore, more advertisement expenditures in even-numbered years, like 2006. Second, ad revenues were higher in 2006 due to the winter Olympics. Third, the housing crisis and the consequent decline in consumer confidence led to a fall in advertisement volumes. Hearst-Argyle's net income declined by $6.8 million, or 41.2%, to $9.7 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30. In November, Barrington Research upgraded the firm from underperform to market perform, with a target price of $25. The U.S. presidential election is sure to contribute to HTV's revenue this year. Research firm PQ Media forecasts a 64% rise in political media expenditures in the 2008 elections to $4.5 billion, as compared to $2.7 billion in the 2004 presidential elections. Bear Stearns said recently that large station owners with network TV affiliates, such as HTV, will be the biggest beneficiaries of the political ad outlay. HTV's revenue will also get a boost from the Beijing Olympics this year. The company's shares have been on a general downturn since early October. With the potential revenue boost from the elections and the Olympics later this year, I believe there is upside from the current levels. But I believe you can wait to buy this issue for 30 to 60 days because I don't see much in terms of short-term catalysts.

Lee Enterprises, a Davenport, Iowa-based newspaper publisher, recently announced a share buyback plan of up to $30 million, through cash. The company has been generating robust cash flows and has also been able to reduce its debt by $135 million in fiscal 2007 and by $179 million in 2006. Lee's net income rose to $81 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2007. Earnings per diluted share grew more than 13% to $1.77. Print media have been plagued by a shift in advertising to the Internet, and Lee is also a victim of this trend. Like most of its peers, Lee has been trying to ramp up its online ad revenue. Although 2007 was a difficult year for the entire newspaper industry, the decline in Lee's ad revenue has been less severe than the industry average. Credit Suisse, which earlier last month initiated coverage of Lee with a neutral rating, said in its report to clients that Lee's sales culture and asset mix would enable it to outperform its peers, with smaller markets being "better insulated from the structural changes weighing on the newspaper industry's growth rate." However, the company's margins and ROIC were less impressive, the analysts added. Deutsche Bank, which has a buy rating on Lee, lowered the price target to $26, citing industrywide trends. Shares have plunged around 60% in the past year and are trading significantly below their 52-week high of $35.65. The trends in the newspaper industry are likely to continue to be worrisome. However, there is some hope. According to a recent Borrell Associates study, local online ad spending is expected to grow by 48% in 2008 to $12.6 billion. While this represents a significant opportunity, Lee (and most of its rivals for that matter) will take time to switch its focus to this arena, and progress on this front is unlikely in the near term. But I believe the stock, which yields 7.10%, will generate good returns in the medium to longer term.

CKE Restaurants Inc., which operates Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants, last week said it increased its buyback program by $50 million, making the limit of its total repurchase program $400 million. The stock trades for 6.5x cash flow.

Embarq Corp. recently announced that its board has approved a 10% increase to its quarterly dividend and a $500 million share repurchase authorization. The Overland Park, Kan.-based communications-services company will pay a dividend of 68.75 cents on March 31 to shareholders of record as of March 10. Separately, the buyback program will expire on June 30, 2009. The stock trades for 5x cash flow.

Amicas Inc. said recently it will repurchase up to $25 million of its stock. The purchases will be made under a prearranged 10b5-1 trading plan, which allows the company to set up a program in advance for such transactions. The plan will allow Amicas to "focus on the business rather than worry about timing and trading of our stock," Chief Executive Stephen Kahane said in a statement. It will also allow the company to buy back shares when it would otherwise be unable to, he added.

Alternative asset manager American Capital Strategies Ltd. said Monday its board approved the repurchase of up to $500 million of common stock.

The world’s largest package delivery company increased its buyback plan from $2 billion to $10 billion based on a new financial policy intended to enhance shareholder value. The shares are expected to be repurchased within the next 2 years. The new policy also aims at increasing its debt ratio to between 50% and 60%. UPS’s CFO, Kurt Kuehn said, “We have been studying our capital structure options for some time. This change in policy will permit us to make increased investments in the business, pursue selective acquisitions and undertake larger share repurchases.” The American Trucking Association President and Chief Executive, Bill Graves, made optimistic statements regarding the U.S. and Chinese trucking industry. With 70% of US goods carried by trucks, Graves expects improving economic conditions in the beginning of 2009 to spark growth in the trucking sector. Mingde Yao, president of the China Road Transport Association does not expect a U.S. recession and said the slowdown should have only a minor effect on trade between the U.S. and China. Bear Stearns analysts Edward Wolfe, who had an underweight rating on the trucking sector for the past two and a half years, raised his rating on the sector to market weight. He believes valuation on the trucking sector is getting attractive as stocks reach their bottoms. Of all the trucking stocks, Wolfe is most confident in UPS. Wolfe upgraded the stock to outperform from peer perform and increased its price target to $85 as “UPS is well positioned to quickly firm up rates once the freight economy improves.” He concluded, “While we expect lower guidance in the near term, we believe UPS is well positioned for the longer term and at 15x our low-end forward P/E, valuation seems reasonable.”