4 Stocks That Took a Hike

I love to kick off the new trading week by examining the companies that have just raised their dividends. A company that's easing up on its pocketbook probably has improving fundamentals to back up that generosity. Readers of the Motley Fool Income Investor newsletter service can 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 the job with Administaff (NYSE: ASF  ) . The human-resources services company is giving its quarterly dividend an 18% boost to $0.13 a share. Outsourcing is a big theme when times are tight, as smaller companies turn to third-party providers to see them through the lulls without having to shoulder the hiring burden.

International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT  ) shareholders also hit the jackpot. The slot-machine maker's quarterly distributions are growing 4% to $0.145 a share. The company's yield of 2.6% may be enticing to folks who prefer steady income instead of gambling it all away through one-armed bandits.

Westlake Chemical (NYSE: WLK  ) is another booster. The maker of petrochemicals, polymers, and other fabricated products will be sending out $0.0525 a share every three months, a 5% improvement over its most recent rate. Westlake has increased its payouts every year since going public in 2004.

Finally ,we have Connecticut Water Service (Nasdaq: CTWS  ) trickling in. The water company's new quarterly disbursement rate of $0.2225 is a mere 2% increase, but that's not the whole story here. The company has increased its dividend in each of the past 39 years. That's the kind of water-drip torture that shareholders won't mind receiving.

Subscribers to Income Investor can appreciate the companies that send 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's being recommended these days? Give the newsletter service a shot with a 30-day trial subscription. Who knows? Maybe the next thing that to get a boost will be your interest.