Dividend checks continue to get fatter 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 Six Flags (NYSE: SIX ) . The regional amusement park operator doubled its quarterly dividend to $0.06 a share. Six Flags emerged from bankruptcy last year with a cleaner balance sheet, new management, and apparently an interest in attracting income investors. Rival Cedar Fair (NYSE: FUN ) -- no stranger to chunky yields in the past -- also juiced up its distributions.
Aqua America (NYSE: WTR ) is also letting it rain. The water utility serving 3 million residents is boosting its quarterly disbursements by 7% to $0.165 a share. Investors should be used to Aqua turning the spigot. The company has jacked up its payouts 21 times over the past 20 years.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE: BIP ) is cranking up its quarterly rate 13% to $0.35 a share. True to its name, Brookfield invests in hard infrastructure-related assets including ports, power transmission, timber, and coal terminals with steady yet growing inflows of revenue. Brookfield aims to return 60% to 70% of its funds from operations to investors through regular distributions.
Finally, we have CF Industries (NYSE: CF ) coming through with a dramatic hike. The maker of nitrogen and phosphate products is quadrupling its quarterly dividend to $0.40 a share. Shelling out $1.60 a share may not seem like a lot for a stock trading near $150, but it does prop up the yield from 0.3% to 1.2%.
These stocks join agricultural chemicals giant Monsanto (NYSE: MON ) and Arkansas banker Home BancShares (Nasdaq: HOMB ) in recently moving their rates higher.
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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