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's easing up on its pocketbook probably has improving fundamentals to back up that generosity.

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

Let's start with breakfast at Tiffany (NYSE: TIF). The upscale jewelry retailer has been pretty generous with its shareholders lately. The company gave its quarterly dividend a 25% boost to $0.15 per share last week. It had come through with a 20% increase just three months ago. Nice. This comes from a company that has hiked its distributions in each of the last five years. What's next? Free diamond pendants? Oh, you shouldn't have!

Next, let's meet The Andersons (Nasdaq: ANDE). The agricultural conglomerate pumped up its yield in a major way, jacking its dividend 63% higher. Shareowners will now be on the receiving end of $0.0775 per share every three months.

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE: MLM) is another hiker. The country's second-largest producer of construction aggregates built up its quarterly dividend by 25%, to $0.345 a share.

Finally, we have Tower Group (Nasdaq: TWGP) stacking up its payout. The property and casualty insurer doubled its quarterly dividend to $0.05 per share. Sure, that's just $0.025 pennies per share more, but there's no point in complaining when your yield doubles overnight.

Subscribers to the Income Investor newsletter 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 to 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 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's disclosure policy pays off.