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 raised their dividends, because any company that's easing up on its pocketbook probably has improving fundamentals to back up that generosity.

Readers of our Income Investor newsletter service 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 Wrigley (NYSE: WWY). The chewing-gum giant was all smiles as it raised its quarterly distributions by 16% to $0.335 a share. The company also declared an ambitious share-repurchase program.

Then we have Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) giving shareholders a little more Monopoly money heading into this morning's quarterly report. The toymaker's new quarterly rate of $0.20 a share is a healthy 25% improvement over its previous disbursements.

Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM) is loosening the purse strings, too. The agricultural juggernaut knows how to grow things on fertile soil, and the same goes for its dividend payout, which is growing by 13%. Shareholders will now be receiving $0.13 a share every three months.

ADM has a knack for declaring beefy distribution increases with every passing year. Its actual dividend has more than doubled over the past five years, in fact. And it's not just ADM being generous in its sector. Other key players, including Bunge (NYSE: BG) and Corn Products International (NYSE: CPO), have been growing their quarterly dividends annually as well.

Finally, we have Otter Tail (Nasdaq: OTTR) kicking tail. The diversified conglomerate that does everything from peddle electric energy to sell medical equipment and food ingredients is bumping up its quarterly dividend by 2% to $0.2975 a share. That may not seem like much, but Otter Tail has now boosted its distributions for 33 consecutive years.

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

Want to see what Income Investor is recommending 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 a boost will be your interest.