4 Stocks That Took a Hike

I love to kick off the new trading week by taking a quick peek at companies that have just hiked their dividends. It's not just about the money. A company that is easing up on its pocketbook probably has improving fundamentals to back up that generosity.

Readers of the Income Investor newsletter can certainly get behind that kind of thinking. Let's take a closer look at four of the companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.

We'll start with Hooker Furniture (Nasdaq: HOFT). The residential wood, metal, and upholstered furniture specialist propped up its quarterly distributions by a pair of pennies to $0.10 a share. Investors who took the move as a positive indicator were vindicated a day later, when Hooker posted better-than-expected November quarter results.

Then we have Hasbro (NYSE: HAS). The toy maker also beat the stuffing out of Wall Street's profit targets a day after offering up a beefier yield. Hasbro's new rate of $0.16 a share every three months is a third higher than last year's rate. The company behind the Clue and Monopoly board games most definitely has a clue. It won't be paying its shareholders in Monopoly money, either.

Black & Decker (NYSE: BDK) was another hiker. The power tool giant's quarterly payout boost -- going from $0.38 a share to $0.42 a share -- may not seem like much. However, the company has been an aggressive hiker in recent years. Its dividend rate has actually tripled over the past five years, with annual increases along the way.

Then we have Wrigley (NYSE: WWY). When investors think of Wrigley distributions, they may be thinking of the holiday gift packs of chewing gum that the company sends its shareholders. Owners won't be getting more gum, but they will be receiving more spending money to buy more gum if they want to.

Wrigley's quarterly distribution is going 13% higher to $0.29 a share. Then again, the company's been doing this for years. I guess you can hike and chew gum at the same time!

Subscribers to Income Investor can appreciate the companies sending more and more money to their investors. The newsletter singles out companies that are committed to growing their distributions with market-thumping results.

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

Hooker Furniture is a Hidden Gems selection, Hasbro is a Stock Advisor recommendation, and Wrigley is an Income Investor pick.

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