Valhi Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Valhi (NYSE: VHI  ) rose as much as 11.5% in early trading after the company reported the results of its annual meeting and raised its quarterly dividend payout by 25%.

So what: The company, which makes a titanium dioxide pigment for coatings and plastics, approved say-on-pay measures required by the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation and raised its dividend payout from $0.10 to $0.125 quarterly.

Now what: As an investor, I’m happy to see Valhi raising dividends. If nothing else, it’s an indicator that management takes its responsibility to shareholders seriously -- and we’ve seen far too many examples of CEOs who couldn’t care less about outside investors. In fact, we’re taking a look at some of them this week. Click here to take a closer look at Talbots (NYSE: TLB  ) , here for an inside view of Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE  ) , and here to check under the hood of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS  )

Interested in more info on Valhi? Add it to your watchlist.