An activist retail investor has bought a large stake in Family Dollar Stores and is pushing the Matthews, N.C.-based discount chain to boost shareholder value.

Calling Family Dollar stock "undervalued," billionaire Nelson Peltz disclosed in a regulatory filing that he owns more than 8.7 million shares. He's met with company management, including CEO Howard Levine, to discuss strategy such as increasing sales per square foot.

Peltz has a track record of buying large chunks of retail businesses and seeking improvements.

Dara BioSciences, a small Raleigh company developing treatments for pain and diabetes, plans a reverse stock split to avoid having its shares delisted.

The company's board plans to convert every 16 existing shares into one new share. The result will reduce the number of shares outstanding and increase the stock price by the same ratio.

Dara's shares closed Wednesday at 39 cents, and are down 80 percent in the past two years.

The stock split is scheduled to take effect with the start of trading Thursday morning. The move will enable Dara to continue listing its shares on the Nasdaq by meeting the stock market's $1 per-share minimum.

The company, which employs five people, also is working on experimental treatments for other ailments, including psoriasis and cystic fibrosis.

Dara's strategy is to license drugs that are discovered by others, develop them through human tests and then sell the marketing rights.

State Treasurer Janet Cowell and eight states' investment leaders are trying to oust directors of the company that owns a West Virginia mine where 29 miners were killed in an explosion last month.

Mark Johnson reports on our Under the Dome blog that Cowell, who oversees the state pension fund, and the other investors released a letter today highlighting Massey Energy's "repeated and serious" safety violations.

They asked shareholders to withhold support for three directors for failing to carry out their duties. The three are up for reelection at the company's May 18 shareholder's meeting.

"Massey Energy has an extensive history of persistent and serious safety violations," Cowell said in a prepared statement. "Ultimately, that has consequences for long-term shareholder value."

Massey Energy shares have fallen about 31 percent since the April 5 mine explosion but are still up nearly 75 percent in the past year.

The investor coalition collectively owns 1.4 million shares of Massey Energy. The other states include California, New York and Illinois.

Read the full Under the Dome report, which includes a copy of the letter, online here.

Shares of The Pantry rose today after an analyst raised his rating on the Cary-based convenience store chain.

The Pantry, which owns more than 1,600 stores in 11 states, is poised to benefit as the economy improves during the next 12 to 18 months, William Blair & Co. analyst Mark Miller wrote in a report to investors.

It also could become an acquisition target, wrote Miller, who raised his rating to "outperform" from "market perform."

Earlier this month, Casey's General Stores, an Iowa-based chain of convenience stores, received a buyout offer from Alimentation Couche-Tard. The Canadian corporation has more than 3,500 stores across the U.S. including Circle K.

Casey's officials have rejected the $1.9 billion offer as too low, but the bid has spurred speculation that other chains could be acquisition targets.

IBM boosted its dividend and announced that it will buy back $8 billion of shares, moves aimed at increasing the technology company's stock price.

That's good news for the company's thousands of employees and retirees in this region.

IBM is one of the Triangle's largest private employers, with about 10,000 workers at its massive Research Triangle Park campus. As one of the first tenants in RTP, IBM also has thousands of retirees in this region, many who also own its stock.

The moves also are another sign of recovery in the tech sector. By increasing its dividend and buying back stock, IBM is returning more cash to shareholders and signals the company expects its financial results will continue to improve. Last week IBM increased its profit forecast for 2010 to $11.20 per share.

A Burlington-based medical-testing company that employs about 1,000 people in the Triangle could be an acquisition target.

Shares of LabCorp jumped today on speculation that the company may be bought, Jefferies Group analyst Arthur Henderson told Bloomberg News.

LabCorp reported in a regulatory filing this morning that it altered its change-of-control provisions to eliminate additional severance pay to senior executives for excise taxes from payments related to a takeover.

That filing fueled speculation about a leveraged buyout, Henderson told Bloomberg. “These rumors have been building up for a couple of weeks,” Henderson said.

LabCorp shares rose $2.35 today to close at $79.33. The stock is up 27 percent in the past year.

Shares of larger rival Quest Diagnostics also jumped on buyout speculation, rising $1.60 to $59.86.

LabCorp, which employs about 28,000 people worldwide, announced last month that it will add 346 jobs in Greensboro as it consolidates billing operations from across the country. The company's operations include a massive genetics-testing facility in Research Triangle Park.

The Nasdaq halted trading in Salix Pharmaceuticals shares this morning, as the Morrisville company awaits word from regulators on one of its medicines.

An outside advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to meet today to discuss the safety and efficacy of using Salix's Xifaxan to treat a type of liver disease. Last week, the FDA staff released a report that questioned whether the drug had significant benefits for people with hepatic encephalopathy.

Salix shares, which had more than quadrupled in the past year, have fallen nearly 14 percent since Friday. The stock closed Monday at $24.25.

The stock could slump further if the committee recommends against approving Xifaxan, but also could rebound quickly on positive news. The Nasdaq trading halt is common when there news expected that could significantly effect a stock's price.

Charles & Colvard investors got some good news this morning: Its stock won't be delisted from the Nasdaq.

The Morrisville maker of moissanite gemstones faced delisting because its shares had fallen below the required minimum price of $1. But Charles & Colvard took several steps to boost its the price, including announcing plans to buy back 1 million shares.

Executives, including new CEO Randy McCullough, also began buying shares on the open market.

The efforts helped. The stock closed above $1 for 10 consecutive trading days and the company received word from the Nasdaq that its shares were back in compliance.

Talecris Biotherapeutics, which got a warm welcome on Wall Street two months ago, is learning how quickly the stock market can turn chilly.

For the first time since the stock began trading publicly on Oct. 1, Talecris shares on Monday fell below their opening price of $19. It was one of this year's most successful initial public offerings and the first IPO by a Triangle company in several years.

The stock has fallen nearly 20 percent since closing at a high of $23.05 on Nov. 11. It closed Monday at $18.75, down 54 cents.

The price drop stings Talecris investors, who include most of its 2,200 Triangle employees. The Research Triangle Park company gave each of its workers at least 50 shares at the IPO price, and some, especially top executives, hold many more.

CEO Lawrence Stern, for example, owns the equivalent of about 5 million shares.

The stock decline comes as Wall Street worries about the broader market for medicines made from blood plasma that Talecris sells. The recession has led to an increase in plasma collection, which could create an oversupply. The downturn also is weakening demand, and patients' ability to pay, for medicines.

Raleigh software company Red Hat will soon require its top executives to own more of its shares, creating added financial incentive for them to help the stock rise.

Since 2006, the company has required officers and directors to own shares. The revised stock-ownership policy, which takes effect March 1, increases the minimum ownership levels, said Brandon Asbill, vice president and assistant general counsel.

For example, an executive vice president will have to own and retain at least 33,000 shares, while an outside director will have to hold 10,000 shares, Red Hat reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

"Stock ownership guidelines can be a compelling way to ensure that the interests of executives and directors are more strongly aligned with the interests of stockholders," Asbill said in a prepared statement.

Still, most top executives and directors already own much more than the minimum levels, according to SEC filings.