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 Motley Fool Income Investor newsletter can certainly appreciate that kind of thinking. Let's take a closer look at some of the companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.
Let's start with W.P. Carey (NYSE: WPC ) . The investment firm takes its payouts seriously, boosting its quarterly dividend to $0.50 a share. It may be a tiny upgrade from the $0.498 a share it paid out just three months ago, but W.P. Carey has managed marginal increases in each of the past 34 quarters.
Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM ) is also firing up its yield. The cigarette giant is increasing its quarterly distributions by 7% to $0.58 a share. The Marlboro maker pays out a good chunk of its profits in the form of quarterly disbursements, since this isn't the kind of business that requires beefy reinvestments.
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN ) is also chipping in. The semiconductor juggernaut's new quarterly payout of $0.12 a share is a 9% uptick from its most recent rate. Texas Instruments has now delivered six consecutive years of annual increases.
Finally, we have Kroger (NYSE: KR ) . The chain of 2,470 supermarkets and multidepartment stores is jacking up its quarterly dividend by 6% to $0.095 a share. The grocer has propped up its yield every year since reinitiating its dividend policy in 2006.
Some of these moves may not seem like much, but consider the less savory moves that took place in recent days. Several closed-end funds including Western Asset Income Fund (NYSE: PAI ) and Cohen & Steers Global Income (NYSE: INB ) cut back on their monthly or quarterly disbursements.
Subscribers to the Income Investor newsletter can appreciate the companies sending 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 will get hiked will be your interest.
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