Payouts matter. Money is near and dear to a company, and if it's willing to pay out a healthy dividend -- and keep growing that rate over the years -- it should be seen as a sign of confidence. A company hiking its distribution rate is one that's likely upbeat about its future earnings power. Readers of the Income Investor newsletter can certainly appreciate that kind of thinking.
Let's take a closer look at four companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.
We can start with Microsoft
Corus Entertainment
Shareholders checking into Choice Hotels
Then we have Apache
Income Investor analyst Mathew Emmert has often singled out companies that are committed to growing their distributions with market-thumping results.
Want to see what Mathew's liking 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. He is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.The Fool has a disclosure policy.