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 WhiteHorse Financial (WHF 0.62%).

The business development company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.355 a share in its first full quarter since going public. It had paid out $0.108 as a prorated payout a quarter earlier.

WhiteHorse began the year with high-yielding debt investments in just seven companies, but it did buy into a Puerto Rican hospital operator last week. WhiteHorse is now yielding nearly 9.2%, though naturally there are plenty of risks in the hot niche of business development companies.

American Tower (AMT -0.70%) is also broadcasting a louder rate. American Tower's quarterly disbursements are growing 8% to $0.26 a share. American Tower leases out space on its fleet of antenna towers to wireless carriers, radio stations, and any company needing to amplify its range.

American Tower transformed itself into a REIT last year, and has gone on to declare higher distributions with every passing quarter.

Realty Income (O -0.17%) is also hitting the register with a larger dividend check. Realty Income is a frequent visitor in this column. The retail-oriented REIT bills itself as "The Monthly Dividend Company" for its monthly distributions, and it has now gone 71 consecutive quarters with an increase.

The upticks are marginal. Realty Income's next per-share payout of $0.1812292 is just a smidgeon ahead of the $0.1809167 it declared a month earlier, but it still finds the REIT moving in the right direction.

Finally, we have General Mills (GIS -0.77%) giving investors something to Cheerios about. The cereal thriller's new quarter rate of $0.38 a share is a 15% improvement. General Mills has come through with 14 dividend hikes since 2004, and it has never reduced its dividend in the past 114 years.

Checks and balances
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