Dividend checks continue to beef up in Corporate America, as more companies jack up their distribution rates.

Readers of the 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 Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM). The fast-food giant behind Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut is giving investors more money to spend its value-priced eats. Yum! is boosting its quarterly dividend by 19% to $0.25 a share. This is the sixth year in a row that Yum! has declared meatier disbursements.

PACCAR's (Nasdaq: PCAR) payouts also keep on truckin'. The truck maker is jacking up its rate. Shareholders will now be receiving $0.12 a share every three months, a 33% improvement from its previous rate.

Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) realizes that everything is bigger in Texas, including its yield. The semiconductor behemoth's new quarterly dividend is climbing 8% to $0.13 a share. It's a small uptick, but TI has now come through with seven consecutive years of hikes.

Texas Instruments also announced an additional $7.5 billion share buyback, beefing up yet another way to return money to its investors.

Finally we have Kroger (NYSE: KR) stocking up on chunky disbursements. The supermarket juggernaut with 2,468 grocery stores is increasing its payout by 11% to $0.105 a share. Kroger has now propped up its yield four times since 2006.

Dividends are sure growing more popular these days, as even tech bellwether Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) announced that it would initiate a payout policy next year.

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 will get hiked will be your interest.

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