Yields aren't found just at roadway intersections. In the stock market, they can be a sign of prosperity, provided the company paying them can maintain a healthy balance sheet along the way. It's often interesting to track companies that are growing their dividends, since those payouts just might indicate improving fundamentals.

Let's take a closer look at four companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.

We'll start with Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO). The pop star announced two months ago that it would hike its dividend for the 44th straight year, and it came through on that promise. The company's new quarterly dividend of $0.31 a share is an 11% improvement from its previous payout rate. This Inside Value recommendation has been busy buying back shares and keeping that dividend streak going, but it's facing some challenges as well. This past quarter found sales, operating profits, and earnings all growing at a slower pace than its 11% payout hike.

Breakfast buffs may associate Kellogg (NYSE:K) with early starts. This past week, the company announced another: a distribution spurt that won't take place until September. Starting in the third quarter, the cereal giant's dividend will grow from $0.2775 to $0.291 per share. Despite the deep fractions, it translates into a rather modest 5% uptick. Note that Kellogg hasn't missed paying a quarterly dividend in 81 years.

International Speedway (NASDAQ:ISCA) was another hiker. The operator of the famed Daytona 500 put the pedal to the metal with a 33% surge in its annual payout. Shareholders who were receiving $0.06 a share every two months will now get $0.08 per share. It's one way to inch closer to the proverbial checkered flag of income investing.

Then we have New York Times (NYSE:NYT). The publisher increased its quarterly dividend from $0.165 to $0.175 a share. This isn't necessarily an indication that things are getting better at the company. New York Times may be proud that its dividends have grown at an annualized clip of better than 7% over the past five years, but that doesn't mean much when the shares have been nearly halved in that time. With print subscriptions waning and advertisers earmarking more of their marketing dollars online, New York Times has made some bold Internet initiatives, but they have yet to bear the kind of fruit that investors truly crave. If the gradually climbing payout and precipitously falling share price have accomplished anything, they've given the company a pretty beefy yield of 2.9%. Is that all the dividend that is fit to pay? Should the company be holding back to keep its balance sheet stronger? It may not matter. The way old-school newspapers are being gobbled up lately, who knows where New York Times will be in a few quarters?

Subscribers to our Income Investor newsletter can appreciate companies that send 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 to 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. Rick is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.