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 Raytheon (NYSE: RTN ) . The military contractor fortified its quarterly dividend by 21%, to $0.375 a share. This marks Raytheon's sixth consecutive year of bumping its rate higher.
Williams-Sonoma (NYSE: WSM ) will also give its shareholders a little more shopping money. The home goods retailer behind Pottery Barn, West Elm, and its namesake stores will grow its quarterly disbursements by 8% to $0.13 a share.
Brinker International (NYSE: EAT ) is feeding its investors more greens. The restaurateur behind Chili's Grill & Bar will begin serving up a $0.14-a-share quarterly dividend in its fiscal fourth quarter -- a 27% improvement on its current rate. Brinker is also initiating a $250 million share repurchase program; cue the "I want my baby buybacks" jingle!
Finally, Raven Industries (Nasdaq: RAVN ) will come through with a 14% uptick in its payouts. Shareholders will receive $0.16 a share every three months. That's so Raven. The industrial manufacturer has now boosted its disbursements in each of the past 24 years.
The past week favored yield chasers, as these four companies joined others such as Realty Income (NYSE: O ) , which has managed to crank out 57 hikes since going public 16 years ago. Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX ) also turned heads by announcing its first-ever dividend.
Some of these moves may not seem like much, but plenty of companies haven't been able to support even their current dividends lately.
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 we're recommended these days? Go ahead and 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.
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