Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- CBS Corp., owner of the most-watched U.S. television network, raised its quarterly dividend by 14 percent to 25 cents a share, marking the fifth increase since the company was spun off from Viacom Inc. last year.

CBS will also buy back as much as $1.6 billion of its stock, the New York-based company said today in a statement. The dividend, raised from 22 cents, will be payable on Oct. 1 to shareholders of record as of Sept. 14.

The stock repurchase, the second this year, is part of Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves's pledge to return much of the broadcaster's cash flow to shareholders. CBS spokesman Dana McClintock said today the company has completed the previous $1.5 billion stock buyback, announced in February.

``Today's capital return announcement might be the last one for a while'' because CBS may keep some of its cash to make acquisitions, Jonathan Jacoby, an analyst at Banc of America Securities, said in a note to investors today. Jacoby rates the stock ``neutral.''

CBS, chaired by Sumner Redstone, rose 7 cents to $31.58 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have risen 1.3 percent this year.

Under the new buyback, CBS will repurchase as many as 50.7 million shares, based on the closing price of Aug. 31, or about 6.9 percent of its shares outstanding.

The dividend and share repurchase won't change CBS's BBB debt rating, Jamie Rizzo, an analyst at Fitch Ratings in New York, said in a note today.

CBS will finance the actions with the $2.8 billion in cash it had as of June 30 and the $400 million Fitch estimates CBS will get this year from the sale of radio and TV stations, Rizzo said.

Before today, CBS had increased its dividend four times from 14 cents at the time it was split from Viacom in January 2006.

To contact the reporter on this story Don Jeffrey in New York at djeffrey1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 4, 2007 16:20 EDT