4 Stocks That Took a Hike

Who wouldn't want more money in their pockets? That's why there's something special about a company increasing its dividend. Sure, the company could have kept the greenery and let it collect interest or invest it in its future, but shareowners want to have fun too. It's also a sign that a company feels upbeat enough to go easy on those purse strings. If it's a trend that continues, the improving fundamentals may very well send the shares higher.

Let's take a closer look at four of the companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC  ) managed to allow its payout to go higher. The computer chip giant is putting its gargantuan cash balance to good use by hiking its dividend by 25% and initiating an aggressive share repurchase plan. Its timing couldn't be any better, as weakness at Dell (Nasdaq: DELL  ) , the second-straight quarter that the personal computing leader stumbled, was enough to find some investors wondering if their money would be better suited in a healthier sector.

No, a dividend hike and a stock buyback aren't going to help Intel grow any faster, but they will help reward patient shareholders with larger quarterly checks, while helping improve earnings per share in the future by dividing profits into fewer shares outstanding.

Foodservice leader Sysco (NYSE: SYY  ) was another company heaping more pennies on the plates of investors. Come January, Sysco's quarterly payout will go from $0.15 a share to $0.17 a stub. No, this isn't Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO  ) . The companies may be phonetic twins, but Sysco helps supply many institutions, restaurants, and corporate cafeterias with their edibles. Don't believe me? Show up in the wee hours in the back of many of these establishments and the chances of spotting a Sysco truck dropping off fresh foodstuffs are good to fair.

Bandag (NYSE: BDG  ) was another hiker. We're splitting pennies here as the company's dividend will be going from $0.33 to $0.335 per share, but it's clearly an upgrade. Bandag makes tires, but don't go treading on Bandag. The last time we took a look at the company was over the summer after a relatively disappointing second quarter. However, what bears repeating from that report was that sales and earnings did inch higher for the period. That's usually all it takes to give a company the confidence to eventually hike its yield.

Mesa Labs (Nasdaq: MLAB  ) is the fourth company that we'll be taking a closer look at this week. Boosting its quarterly payout from $0.06 to $0.07 a share may not seem like much, but Mesa isn't stopping there. It also declared a $0.25-per-share onetime dividend, a nice bonus considering it presented its investors with a $0.20-a-share special distribution a year ago. Like Intel, Mesa announced a share-repurchase plan. Then again, the company's goal to buy 300,000 shares of its own stock pales against Intel's proposed undertaking. Still, it's just another company making shareholders' lives that much more rewarding.

Subscribers to our Income Investor newsletter can appreciate the companies sending more and more money to their investors. Analyst Mathew Emmert has often singled out companies that are committed to growing their distributions with market-thumping results.

Want to see what Mathew's liking these days? Go ahead and give his newsletter service a shot with a 30-day trial subscription. Who knows? Maybe the next thing that will get hiked will be your interest.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz pays attention to yield signs. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.