BOSTON (Bloomberg) ? Bill Miller, holder of the longest streak of beating the Standard & Poor's 500 Index in mutual fund history, is calling on Bermuda-based Tyco International Ltd. to buy back shares as its stock trades near a two-year low.

Miller said he's had "numerous discussions" with Tyco Chief Executive Officer Edward Breen to persuade him to step up repurchases and boost the share price.

"The big problem is the lack of a substantial repurchase and the timidity of the management and board in failing to implement one," Miller, who runs the Legg Mason Value Trust fund, said in a February 17 interview. He said he's "agnostic to slightly negative" on Breen's plan to boost the share price by breaking up the company into three parts.

Miller, 56, joins Omega Advisors Inc.'s Leon Cooperman and other Tyco shareholders in pushing for a bigger buyback to bolster a stock that's lagged the market the past year. Breen took over from now-jailed L. Dennis Kozlowski in 2002, cut debt by more than half and replaced the board. He announced the breakup last month after failing to spur growth.

Tyco, run from West Windsor, New Jersey, has about $1 billion remaining on its August buyback programme, and it expects to repurchase shares as it generates cash, spokeswoman Sheri Woodruff said.

The company wants enough cash on hand to keep its net debt ? borrowings minus cash and short-term securities ? at about $10 billion, Breen said on a February 2 conference call with investors.

Tyco's net debt is at about $9.4 billion now after having peaked at $23.3 billion in March 2002 under Kozlowski. Tyco has total debt of about $12.5 billion.

?We believe our stock is a very good value at these price levels,? Breen told investors on February 2. Tyco will complete its current buyback programme ?over the next several months,? he said. ?At that time, we will be in a position to communicate a follow-on programme.?

On Tuesday, Tyco Chief Financial Officer Chris Coughlin, 52, bought 10,000 shares of company stock for $255,376 at prices of $25.53 a share and $25.54 a share, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing yesterday. Coughlin, who replaced David FitzPatrick almost a year ago, owns 180,000 shares, the filing said.

Tyco shares have declined 30 percent from their highest point in 2005, and they?ve dropped 15 percent in the weeks since Breen announced the breakup last month. The stock fell 4 cents to $25.50 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange Composite trading yesterday, and earlier this month touched $24.80, the lowest since December 2003.

?If you truly believe the value of this business is in the mid-30s, I would forgo the breakup, I would forgo the dividend to buy back 10 percent to 12 percent of the company now,? Omega?s Cooperman said in an interview last week. At Tyco?s stock market value of $51 billion, 12 percent represents more than $6 billion.

Cooperman, 62, said he still supports Breen?s plan to split Tyco into separate electronics, health-care and security companies sometime next year. Breen estimates the breakup will cost $1 billion.

Tyco stock more than tripled under Breen, 49, who took over after Kozlowski was ousted ahead of an indictment for sales-tax evasion.

The shares peaked at $36.37 in January 2005 before falling in recent months.

Baltimore-based Legg Mason Inc. is Tyco?s third-biggest shareholder with more than 74.6 million shares as of December. Miller?s fund held 33.9 million as of September 30.

He declined to disclose the fund?s current holdings. Miller has beaten the S&P 500 index for the past 15 years, a record. Cooperman?s New York- based Omega held 6 million shares at the end of December.

John Inch, an analyst at New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co. who covers Tyco and rates the stock ?neutral,? said last week that pressure may be increasing on the company to stop the breakup plans.

Kozlowski tried and failed to engineer a split in 2002, abandoning the attempt when investors questioned the company?s accounting. Inch says there?s a 25 percent chance Tyco will reverse its plans again.

The company said yesterday it would redeem early $1.26 billion worth of convertible bonds, part of a move Breen has called ?a good use of cash.?

The company spent $4.2 billion in the year through September to retire 130 million shares, mostly by redeeming convertible debt. Convertible bonds can be exchanged for stock at a given price, and redeeming them reduces the number of diluted shares a company has outstanding. With the company?s shares down $10 in the past year, Cooperman and Miller contend that the company should concentrate instead on buying common stock.

Tyco has appointed a separate management team to oversee the breakup, which involves unravelling ties among more than 2,300 units, while Breen seeks ways to accelerate growth. The company will have to raise prices at its electronics division to meet the high end of its profit forecasts, excluding breakup costs, Breen said earlier this month.

Tyco generated free cash flow, or cash after certain expenses, of about $4.7 billion in the fiscal year ended in September. Miller said Tyco should put some of that to use now, rather than waiting until the company has broken up. Billionaire financer Carl Icahn said in a February 15 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that his Mt. Kisco, New York-based Icahn Management LP owned about 2 million Tyco shares, valued at about $57.7 million.

Icahn last week ended a six-month effort to take control of Time Warner Inc., the world?s biggest media company.