4 Stocks That Took a Hike

Dividends can't be taken for granted. Many companies don't pay them. Others will scrap them or lower them in turbulent times. That's why publicly traded companies that grow their distribution rates are worth noting. It's not just the fatter yields but also the improvement in the underlying fundamentals that make growing rates possible.

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

We'll start with Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO  ) . The popular oil refiner has been a huge winner for investors as soaring fuel prices and growing demand have lit a match under the stock. The shares have nearly doubled over the past year and have a grown more than sixfold over the past three years. Valero is passing more of its profits on to investors, hiking its quarterly dividend by 33% to $0.08 a share. It's a sector ripe for hikes, as Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) also raised its payout last week.

Another sector that's gaining momentum is the discount brokerage industry. Market leader Charles Schwab (Nasdaq: SCHW  ) will now be paying its shareowners $0.03 every three months for every share they own. It doesn't seem like much, but it represents a 20% advance for the pioneer in marked-down stock trading. The Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation has been the welcome beneficiary of investors flocking back to the market, given the steady and respectable gains notched up by Wall Street lately.

IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) was another hiker. The corporate technology giant increased its dividend by 50% -- the largest percentage boost in its seasoned history -- to $0.30 per share. It's also the 11th consecutive year in which IBM has declared a higher distribution rate. The company also announced a $4 billion share buyback.

If you think that boosting your dividends for 11 straight years is impressive, you might as well give it up for Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ  ) . The company's 14% increase to $0.37 a share pales in light of IBM's huge spurt, but it has now been 44 years in a row in which the "No More Tears" consumer goods and pharmaceuticals giant has ratcheted up its payout.

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 likes 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. Rick is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.