Hungry for McDonald's

"The timing of this dividend increase is interesting," says Whitney Tilson, managing partner with T2 Partners, a hedge fund that has McDonald's as its largest holding. "It shows that McDonald's is aware that there is someone else out there wooing its shareholders, and they want to be viewed as shareholder-friendly as possible."

This isn't the first time that Ackman has tried to woo shareholders at McDonald's. Last year, he put public pressure on the chain to spin off a portion of its company-operated restaurant business, take on debt and return value to shareholders through a dividend or a share repurchase. The business, Ackman said, was being undervalued because of the way it was structured.

McDonald's eventually placated Ackman by agreeing to provide more disclosure on the performance of its company-operated restaurant division, known as McOpCo, which the hedge fund manager had criticized as being an underperformer relative to the franchise business. The company also agreed to buy back shares, refranchise or sell roughly 2,000 restaurants and spin off Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG Quote), a trendy burrito chain that went public in January.

At the time, those steps were viewed as a compromise between McDonald's and its hedge fund agitator, but early this month, Ackman signaled that he's hungry for more. The company disclosed in a regulatory filing that three investment funds managed by Pershing Square notified McDonald's of plans to acquire at least $793.8 million of its stock under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.