Was Relational Investors Instrumental in Home Depot's Buyback Decision?

After the close Tuesday, Home Depot (NYSE: HD) announced an astonishing $22.5 billion increase to its share repurchase program. The Company will fund the $22.5 billion share repurchase with the net proceeds from the sale of HD Supply, existing cash on hand and the net proceeds from an anticipated $12 billion issuance of senior unsecured notes.

As you may recall, activist firm Relational Investors was awarded a board seat in February as part of a settlement on corporate governance matters. Relational was instrumental in getting former-CEO Bob Nardelli ousted and getting the company to look at a sale of the supply business, which was also announced yesterday. It can also be safely assumed that they had something to do with the buyback decision.

Relational Investors' other holdings: ConAgra Foods (NYSE: CAG), Prudential Financial (NYSE: PRU), National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM), Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX), Sovereign Bancorp (NYSE: SOV), Unum Group (NYSE: UNM), Analog Devices Inc. (NYSE: ADI), and Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S).

HD 1-yr chart