Breeden buys 2.44 mln more H&R Block shares

NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters) - A firm controlled by activist investor and H&R Block Inc (HRB.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Chairman Richard Breeden has this week bought an additional 2.44 million shares of the largest U.S. tax preparer, increasing its stake to about 2.59 percent from 1.84 percent.

According to a Thursday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Greenwich, Connecticut-based Breeden Capital Partners LLC spent about $47.8 million on the shares in a series of purchases from March 18 to 20.

Following the purchases, the firm said it owned 8,435,000 H&R Block shares, worth $171.4 million based on Wednesday's closing price of $20.32.

Breeden, a former SEC chairman, has been pushing H&R Block to focus on tax preparation, and to scale back or jettison other businesses, such as its money-losing Option One Mortgage Corp subprime lending unit.

Two months after winning three board seats, Breeden in November engineered the ouster of Mark Ernst as chief executive. On March 17, H&R Block announced a sale of Option One's mortgage servicing business to WL Ross & Co, a firm founded by billionaire Wilbur Ross, for about $1.1 billion.

Kansas City, Missouri-based H&R Block said it had 325.4 million shares outstanding as of Feb 29.

In afternoon trading, H&R Block shares rose 35 cents to $20.67 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; editing by Gunna Dickson)