Not every company is slashing its dividend these days. Some of the market's better performers are easing up on their purse strings and sending more money out to their shareholders.
Readers of the Motley Fool Income Investor newsletter can appreciate that kind of thinking. Let's take a closer look at four of the companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.
Let's start with Prospect Capital (Nasdaq: PSEC ) . This closed-end fund, which lends to and invests in obscure companies, is now paying a quarterly dividend of $0.4075 a share. That is a practically negligible improvement over its previous $0.40625 rate, but Prospect has been bumping up its yield every three months for 20 consecutive quarters now.
Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM ) is also sending its investors more burrito money. The company behind the Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut chains is jacking up its quarterly disbursements by 11% to $0.21 a share. Yum! Brands has been delivering annual upticks since 2004. It also authorized a $300 million share-buyback program, so it's returning money to shareholders in two different ways.
Clarcor (NYSE: CLC ) is another pocket-change maker. The maker of filtration and packaging products is boosting its quarterly distributions by 8% to $0.0975. Clarcor's streak of annual payout increases stands at an impressive 26 years.
Finally, we have Calavo Growers (Nasdaq: CVGW ) . The avocado grower's new annual dividend is $0.50 a share, a healthy 43% over last year's rate. Holy guacamole!
Some of these moves may not seem like much. But when you consider how many companies in recent months have had to cut their dividends, you'll value even small boosts a lot more.
Subscribers to Income Investor can appreciate the companies that send more and more money to their investors. The newsletter 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 Income Investor a shot with a 30-day trial subscription. Who knows? Maybe the next thing to get an increase will be your interest.
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