Not every company is slashing its dividend these days. Some of the market's better performers are easing up on their purse strings, sending more money out to their shareholders.

Readers of the 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 last week.

Let's start with FactSet Research Systems (NYSE:FDS). The financial markets data specialist is following equities higher, boosting its dividend by 11%. Shareholders will now be receiving $0.20 a share every three months.

There are also headier payouts on tap at Molson Coors (NYSE:TAP). The brewer knows its hops -- and it's hopping, increasing its quarterly disbursements by 20% to $0.24 a share. The company is clearly confident about its prospects, since completing the merger between Molson and Coors four years ago.

NACCO Industries (NYSE:NC) is another hiker. The diversified company that dabbles in everything from forklift trucks to Hamilton Beach grills to coal mining is splitting pennies. It's new quarterly distribution rate of $0.5175 a share may only be fractionally ahead of its more recent $0.515 dividend, but at least it's moving in the right direction.

Finally, we have Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) spoiling its investors. The insurer's new quarterly dividend is $0.15 a share, a 7% upgrade. Shareholders have come to expect this, since this is the fifth year in a row of higher yields at Assurant.

Some of these moves may not seem like much, but consider the less savory moves that took place last week:

  • Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE:AKR) and Apartment Investment & Management (NYSE:AIV) shaved their payouts, proving that real estate isn't out of the woods just yet.
  • Office furniture giant Herman Miller (NYSE:MLHR) is slashing its yield by 75%. I guess the inventor of the cubicle and the high-end Aeron chair is boxed into a difficult situation with companies scaling back.

Subscribers to the Income Investor newsletter can appreciate the companies sending 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 that will get hiked will be your interest.