I love to kick off the new trading week by taking a quick peek at companies that have just raised their dividends. A company that's easing up on its pocketbook probably has improving fundamentals to back up that generosity.
Readers of the Income Investor newsletter service can appreciate that kind of thinking. Let's take a closer look at four of the companies that inched their payouts higher over the past week.
Let's start with Williams-Sonoma
Pepsi Bottling Group
Then we have American Greetings
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Why send out a dime
When a dozen pennies will do?
Yes, American Greetings is bumping up its quarterly payouts by 20% to $0.12 a share. You might not expect the greeting-card business to be much of a growth industry, but American Greetings has continued to expand, in part through its recent purchase of photo-sharing website Webshots, from CNET Networks
Finally, we have Ameron
Subscribers to Income Investor can appreciate the companies that are sending more and more money to their investors. The newsletter service singles out companies that are committed to growing their distributions with market-thumping results.
Want to see what's being recommended these days? Give the service a shot with a 30-day trial subscription. Who knows? Maybe the next thing to get an increase will be your interest.