Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC - option chain) shares are rising today after the company announced that its board has approved an increase of its quarterly dividend to 20 cents per share from 15 cents. The board also approved a $1 billion stock buyback program. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on CSC.

CSC opened this morning at $47.40. So far today the stock has hit a low of $47.40 and a high of $48.99. As of 12:10, CSC is trading at $48.76 up $1.85 (3.9%). The chart for CSC looks bullish and S&P gives CSC a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.

The New York Times reports that one of the co-authors of a very popular and influential management book, Reengineering the Corporation, has died. Michael Hammer, a former MIT professor, helped popularize the idea that managers should view their organizations as a "clean sheet of paper" and make them work more effectively for their customers. In the 1990s, the idea of Reengineering a company took over the thinking of managers around the world and led to billions of dollars worth of consulting work.

As it turns out, I have a professional connection to Hammer and his co-author, James A. Champy. Hammer taught me at MIT -- I took a course called Office Automation Systems from him in which he talked about the importance of imagining how a process would work if it could be re-imagined from scratch. And Champy hired me to work for the firm he co-founded with several MIT Sloan School professors -- Index Systems -- which grew dramatically after the Reengineering book was published. Index was ultimately acquired by Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC).

Like many management ideas, its period of wild popularity lasted a few years and then faded. But what has stayed with me about the concept of Reengineering is the notion that a business needs to work not to satisfy the needs of its internal fiefdoms, but to make life better for its customers. And that is a legacy of which Hammer might be proud.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in Computer Sciences Corp securities.

Next week's highlights include Covansys' shareholders meeting, where the Computer Sciences Corp acquistion will be discussed.


Monday June 25

• Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) to hold mid-June sales call at 4:30pm.

Tuesday June 26

• PDUFA date for Sanofi-Aventis SA's (NYSE: SNY) Acomplia for weight loss.
• Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 5pm.
• Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 5pm.

Wednesday June 27

• Covansys Corporation (NASDAQ: CVNS) to hold a special shareholder meeting at 9am in Detroit on the acquisition by Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC).
• Sierra Health Services Inc (NYSE: SIE) to hold special shareholder meeting at 4pm in Las Vegas on proposed acquisition by UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH).
• Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (NASDAQ: BBBY) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 5pm.

Thursday June 28

• Palm Inc (NASDAQ: PALM) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 4:30pm.
• Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 5pm.

Friday June 29

• Finish Line Inc (NASDAQ: FINL) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 8:30am.

With the market being propelled upward due to private equity and corporate acquisitions, investors should not stay on the sidelines. Rather, they should target private equity's next frontier -- IT services. Of the companies in this sector, Unisys Corp. (NYSE: UIS), Perot Systems Corp. (NYSE: PER) and Ingram Micro, Inc. (NYSE: IM) may be worth examining.

A few months ago, I suggested several sectors and companies that private equity could target next. On Friday, TheStreet.com reiterated one of those sectors -- IT services. Here's how much seven such companies have gone up or down since my March 29th post along with their market capitalizations ranked by their Price/Earnings to Earnings Growth (PEG) ratios: