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.

We can start with Monsanto (NYSE: MON).

The agrichemical giant is boosting its quarterly distributions by 25% to $0.375 a share. It's not the only way that Monsanto is returning money to its investors. Back in June, Monsanto introduced a $1 billion share repurchase program that will take place over three years.

Silver Wheaton (NYSE: SLW) is also giving its yield a golden boost. The silver producer has a policy in place returning 20% of the operating cash generated during a quarter to its stockholders, and posting record second-quarter results last week is good news to its investors holding out for beefier payouts. Silver Wheaton's quarterly rate is increasing 11% to $0.10 a share.

Leggett & Platt (NYSE: LEG) is also pounding the table. The maker of furniture components is lifting its quarterly disbursements nearly 4% to $0.29 a share. Shareowners should be used to this by now. Leggett & Platt has come through with 41 consecutive years of increases.

Finally, we have CME Group (Nasdaq: CME) shaving pennies the right way. After a recent stock split, the commodities exchange specialist's dividend rate would've been $0.446 a share. CME is rounding that up to $0.45 a share.

Checks and balances
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. A 30-day trial subscription will let you see if it's right for you.

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