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 these past few days.
We can start with Alamo Group (ALG 0.60%).
Not to be confused with the car rental agency or the Alamo, this company specializes in equipment for right-of-way maintenance and agriculture. It certainly knows how to keep its dividends going the right way. Alamo Group's quarterly rate is climbing 17% to $0.07 a share.
Hormel Foods (HRL 0.18%) is up to its old tricks. The company behind the iconic Spam canned ham is juicing up its quarterly distributions by 13% to $0.17 a share. Investors should be used to this by now. Hormel has come through with a whopping 47 consecutive years of increases.
Banks of the Ozarks (OZK 2.46%) is also generating more interest. The regional banker's new quarterly rate of $0.15 a share is a 7% improvement. The Little Rock-based holding company has managed to boost its disbursements for 10 consecutive quarters.
Finally, we have Cal-Maine Foods (CALM 0.74%) hatching bigger payouts. The shell egg producer may have disappointed investors by coming up short in last week's quarterly report, but it still expects to "shell" out a quarterly dividend of roughly $0.199 a share during the third quarter. Cal-Maine's previous rate was a mere $0.13 a share.
