I love to kick off the new trading week by taking a quick peek at companies that have just hiked their dividends. A company that's loosening its purse strings 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.
We'll start with McGraw-Hill
Pest-whacking Rollins
Commercial information and insight specialist Dun & Bradstreet
Finally, railroad operator Norfolk Southern
Some of these moves may not sound like much, but consider the companies going the other way last week:
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Pfizer
(NYSE:PFE) is slashing its dividend in half, making room for the buyout of rival Wyeth(NYSE:WYE) . -
Ethan Allen Interiors
(NYSE:ETH) bumped up its payout over the summer, but the furniture retailer took it all back -- and then some -- with a 60% cut last week.
Subscribers to the Income Investor newsletter can appreciate companies that send more and more money to their investors. The newsletter singles out stocks committed to growing their distributions, with market-thumping results.
Want to see what we're recommending these days? 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.