Control of Herbalife Ltd. is back in play, with top shareholder Whitney V LP saying in a regulatory filing Thursday that it has resumed talks with management that may lead to a higher offer to take the nutritional supplement company private.

Whitney last week withdrew its $38-per-share bid after a special committee at Los Angeles based Herbalife rejected it as too low. That offer would have valued the company at $2.7 billion, a 15-percent premium at the time it was made in February.

The company has since announced deals and fourth quarter earnings that have boosted the company’s stock price.

Whitney, which controls about 27 percent of the company’s outstanding stock, cautioned in today’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that there was no guarantee a new offer would be made.

Even so, Herbalife shares closed up $1.39, or 3.5 percent, to $40.37 on the New York Stock Exchange on more than quadruple its average trading volume.