What's nicer than dividends? More dividends. That's why there's something special about a company increasing its regular shareholder distributions. Sure, the company could have kept the greenery and let it collect interest, or it could have invested the cash in its future, but the investors want a whack at the fiscal pinata, too. It's also a sign that a company feels upbeat enough to go easy on those purse strings. If the trend continues, the improving fundamentals may very well send the shares higher.
Let's take a closer look at four of the companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.
BorgWarner (NYSE:BWA) managed to drive its payout higher. The maker of automobile powertrains is hiking its quarterly dividend from $0.14 to $0.16 per share. Then again, it's not as though BorgWarner hasn't rewarded investors plenty. The stock has more than doubled since being recommended as part of the Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter service nearly three years ago. That's a comforting notion, since most market watchers associate the car industry with recent trading duds like General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Ford (NYSE:F).
Next up is athletic footwear giant Nike (NYSE:NKE), which put its signature swoosh at the end of its "must raise dividend" checklist. The company's quarterly dividend will squeeze into Air Jordans and soar six pennies higher to $0.31 per share.
Nike has been a great growth stock story over the years. As John Reeves pointed out earlier this month, someone who had plunked down $25,000 for Nike stock 13 years ago would be sitting on nearly $200,000 today. Just like BorgWarner, the dividend hikes are refreshing, but they also serve to validate the companies themselves as worthwhile investments. It's not all about the pockets bulging with change.
Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) was another hiker. The retailer of bargain-priced apparel inched its yield 20% higher this past week. OK, so we're talking only about going from a nickel to $0.06 a share. That may not seem like much. However, when you see other retail discounters bellyaching about soft sales, with consumers fretting over higher interest rates and prices at the pump, one can certainly come to appreciate Ross' gesture.
Clorox (NYSE:CLX) is the fourth company we'll be taking a closer look at this week. The consumer goods giant may seem like a sleepy behemoth with minimal growth prospects, but it's apparently selling plenty of its namesake bleach, Glad trash bags, and KC Masterpiece barbecue sauces to allow its dividend to creep one cent higher to $0.29 a share.
Subscribers to our Income Investor newsletter can appreciate the companies sending more and more money to their investors. Analyst Mathew Emmert has often singled out companies that are committed to growing their distributions with market-thumping results.
Want to see what Mathew likes these days? Go ahead and give his newsletter service a shot with a 30-day trial subscription. Who knows? Maybe the next thing that will get hiked will be your interest.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz pays attention to yield signs. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
