(MONEY Magazine) – NEW YORK--ARTHUR SULZBERGER, WHO IS CHIEF EXECUTIVE officer of the New York Times Co., may get a nasty letter soon. No, not from yet another angry reader complaining about some soppy editorial, but from an influential shareholder who thinks Sulzberger is doing a shoddy job. The gripe: a 53% decline in the Times' stock from its '87 high to $23.50 on May 8.

"The Times' stock (NYT) is way undervalued and the people running the place should get off their duffs and get the price up,'' says Mark Boyar, the shareholder who's contemplating writing the letter. And the Times is just one of several companies Boyar is steamed about. He is considering firing off similar complaints to Playboy Enterprises, Pier 1 Imports and Dun & Bradstreet as well.

Boyar, who heads the New York City investment firm Mark Boyar & Co. (assets: $100 million), is one of a growing number of money managers who are no longer content to sit by and merely watch what they regard as inept managements. They want massive restructuring: asset sales, spin-offs of strong divisions, stock buybacks, cost reductions, new CEOs or even takeovers.

Who might be ripe for restructuring? I interviewed seven money managers and compiled a list of 10 companies that they felt should take steps to fatten their stock prices (see the table). Depending on the firms' reactions, managers see gains of as much as 60% in three to 12 months.

How do the money managers apply pressure? Big guns such as $80-billion California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers) and $136 billion Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association/College Retirement Equity Fund (TIAA-CREF) usually take their wish lists directly to the top execs. But money managers with fewer assets do it differently. They establish healthy stock positions, quietly prompt other money managers to take stakes as well and then persuade some big holders to force restructuring by knocking company managements publicly.

You could call it major arm twisting to unlock shareholder values.

In the case of the Times, Boyar says it ought to split its newspapers, TV stations, magazines and electronic publishing into separate businesses. He says: "The Times boasts that it offers all the news that's fit to print; it should also make the stock something that's fit to buy and hold.''

Times president Lance Primis tells me the company will not spin-off businesses. However, he stresses that the firm is already reducing its dependence on its flagship newspaper in favor of higher-growth TV and electronic publishing. That shift, plus cost cutting, could lead to "a new consistency of earnings growth," he says.

Boyar's got some advice for Playboy Enterprises too. Under Christie Hefner, founder Hugh Hefner's daughter, who's been running the publishing and entertainment company since '89, the stock has been a poor performer. It's now at $8, down 10% from its '89 high of $9. Boyar's solution: Team up in an alliance with a heavyweight, such as a Rupert Murdoch, or sell out.

Hefner, however, insists that Playboy is on track for growth. "The question is when the plane takes off, not whether it's too heavy to take off,'' she says. Within three months, she tells me, Playboy will form an overseas TV alliance with two major European partners. And within 12 months, she sees a major U.S. alliance. She declines to name potential partners. "The plane will take off,'' she insists.

Meanwhile, Al Kingsley of Greenway Partners ($250 million) is disenchanted with General Motors, whose stock is up a teeny 3% this year to $43.50--sharply below its 52-week high of $55.75. Kingsley says CEO John Smith should increase the current $2 billion stock buyback program, further raise the annual dividend that was recently hiked 40¢ to $1.20, expand cost cutting and use cash to wipe out pension fund liabilities of $4.5 billion. Smith declined to be interviewed.

Occidental Petroleum, the $10.7 billion energy company, bugs Scott Black, who runs $700 million of assets at Boston's Delphi Management. He thinks Occidental's 60-year-old CEO Ray Irani should be bounced: "He's unimaginative and not aggressive enough.'' Black complains that Occidental's stock ($23.25) is suffering under its $5.6 billion debt load. "You've got to speed up the sale of energy properties with low returns and upgrade exploration to increase reserves," he says. "What's needed is a major company refocus.''

Before Irani became CEO in December 1990, replacing 92-year-old Armand Hammer, the stock hit a high that year of $30.25. Since then, it has sunk 23% while the Dow rose 66%. And while Occidental's shareholders may be feeling pain, Irani isn't. Last year, when the company lost $36 million, he got a ritzy $872,000 bonus, lifting his '94 compensation to $3.4 million. Irani declined to return my phone calls. Sometimes, I guess, silence can be golden.

ORION LOOKS GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT

In the film Silence of the Lambs, cannibal Hannibal Lecter talks fondly of nibbling away on human flesh. Research chief Steve Christenson of Texas brokerage Dallas Research & Trading Corp., also talks fondly of nibbling--but on the shares of Orion Pictures, which owns the flick. Orion and three other firms, including Metromedia International Telecommunications, are slated to merge late next month into what Christenson calls, "the best stock idea I've seen in the 22 years I've been in this business.'' And he thinks investors who buy Orion before the merger could triple their money by year-end, even though the company lost $50 million last year. Billionaire John Kluge hopes he's right: He owns 56% of Orion. After the merger, he will control 32% of the new company--Metromedia International Group--and 61% of its voting power. The new company--in addition to its film business--plans to provide cable-TV services, AM/FM radio, radio paging and wireless telephone services to the former Soviet states and eastern Europe. Christenson's earnings numbers: 20¢ a share this year, 75¢ to 80¢ in '96, $1.50 in '97 and $2.50 in '98. Even Hannibal Lecter might be tempted by such a meaty outlook.