Not every company is slashing its dividend these days. Some of the market's better performers are easing up on their purse strings, sending more money out to their shareholders.
Readers of the Income Investor newsletter can certainly appreciate that kind of thinking. With the stock market finally having put in a winning quarter for the first time since 2007, let's take a closer look at four of the companies that inched their payouts higher during the past three months.
Let's start with General Mills (NYSE: GIS ) . The cereal, yogurt, and canned soup giant is feeding its yield-hungry investors, powering up its quarterly dividend by 9% to $0.47 a share. Why not? General Mills is bucking the trend by posting year-over-year gains in revenue and earnings, so last week's move makes perfect sense.
PetSmart (Nasdaq: PETM ) let the dogs out two weeks ago. The pet care retailer's quarterly payouts are more than tripling to $0.10 a share. Pet-related companies are perceived to be recession resistant, and the superstore's value-priced approach is clearly a winner in lean times.
PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP ) was a May flower. The soft drink and salty snacks behemoth bumped up its quarterly distributions by 6% to $0.45 a share. The pop star has jacked up its yield, 37 years in a row.
Finally, we have Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) with its "no more tears" approach to chunkier dividend checks. If PespiCo's streak is impressive, J&J has come through with 47 consecutive years of increases. The pharmaceuticals heavyweight improved its quarterly dividend by 7% to $0.49 a share in April.
Some of these moves may not seem like much, but consider the less savory moves that took place in recent days. Kayne Anderson Energy Development (NYSE: KED ) , Sovran Self Storage (NYSE: SSS ) , and Schawk (NYSE: SGK ) all declared lower distributions last week.
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 that to get a boost will be your interest.
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