McGraw-Hill Cos. shares rose as much as 5.1 percent in late trading after the company’s talks with hedge fund Jana Partners LLC, which said it bought a stake in the publisher and owner of Standard & Poor’s.

McGraw-Hill discussed “business, corporate structure, operations, management and board composition, strategy and future plans,” New York-based Jana Partners said yesterday in a regulatory filing.

The fund’s disclosure comes as McGraw-Hill mulls divesting businesses, according to Douglas Arthur, an Evercore Partners analyst.

McGraw-Hill said in June that it planned to sell its broadcasting group. CEO Terry McGraw said last week that the unit lacked scale and its growth prospects were limited.

“This is a company hat has been a mini-conglomerate of information database businesses, none of which are all that related,” Arthur said.