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 PNC Financial (NYSE: PNC). The banking giant is jacking up its quarterly dividend by a whopping 250% to $0.35 a share. PNC is also ready to take a share buyback it announced four years ago seriously. The financial services provider still has 24.7 million shares to repurchase from a 25 million share commitment in 2007. It plans to spend $500 million this year on buybacks.

International Speedway (Nasdaq: ISCA) is also putting the pedal to the metal. The motorsports promoter behind the iconic Daytona 500 is revving up its annual distribution by 13% to $0.18 a share.

Richardson Electronics (Nasdaq: RELL) is energizing its payouts. The maker of components for the electron-tube and display systems markets will be shelling out $0.05 a share to its shareholders every three months, well ahead of its earlier rate of $0.02 a share.

Finally we have TJX (NYSE: TJX) marking up its markdown business. The retailer behind the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls discount chains is boosting its quarterly dividend by 27% to $0.19 a share. Investors should be used to this by now, as TJX has come through with meatier disbursements for 15 years in a row.

These companies join hydrocarbon products producer Calumet Specialty Products Partners (Nasdaq: CLMT), Irish cooling specialist Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR), and engineered industrial products maker IDEX (NYSE: IEX) in propping up their yields.

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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