I love to kick off the new trading week by taking a quick peek at companies that have just hiked their dividends. It's not just about the money. A company that's loosening its purse strings probably has improving fundamentals to back up that generosity.

Readers of our Motley Fool Income Investor newsletter can certainly appreciate that kind of thinking. Let's take a closer look at four of the companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.

We can start with CVS (NYSE:CVS). The growing pharmacy store chain upped its investors' dosage with a 26% spike in its distribution rate. Shareholders will now receive $0.04875 per share every three months.

Next, Robbins & Myers (NYSE:RBN) pumped up its payout. The maker of industrial pumps, vessels, and mixers knows how to keep money flowing in the right direction. Its new quarterly dividend of $0.065 a share is an 18% improvement over last year's rate.

Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS) was another hiker. The movie-theater operator will give its investors a little more popcorn money, with a 13% boost in its dividend. Shareholders now stand to receive quarterly checks in the amount of $0.085 a share.

Marcus owns a few hotels, but its bread and butter is its chain of 42 multiplex cinemas. That makes the move a pretty encouraging sign for the industry as a whole. Film exhibitors have suffered through attendance dips over the past few years, as more consumers wait to catch new releases via the convenience of their home theater systems.

Marcus has held up better than its competition, but a lot of the company's recent good fortune is tied to its lodging operations and real estate divestitures.

Lastly, we have Oxford Industries (NYSE:OXM). The apparel specialist knows that the best fashion statement it can make is to have more money going into its investors' pockets. The company behind the Tommy Bahama and Ben Sherman clothing lines will be dressing up its shareholders with a 20% uptick in its quarterly distributions. The new dividend is $0.18 a share.

Subscribers to the Income Investor newsletter can appreciate companies that send more and more money to their investors. The newsletter singles out companies that are committed to growing their distributions with market-thumping results.

Want to see what is being recommended these days? Go ahead and give the newsletter service a shot with a 30-day trial subscription. Who knows? Maybe the next thing to get hiked 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 in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.