Not every company is slashing its dividend these days. Some of the market's better performers are easing up on their purse strings and sending more money out to their shareholders. So let's take a closer look at some of the companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.

We can start with Roper (NYSE:ROP). The provider of specialized engineered products for the water, energy, radio-frequency and research/medical industries is bumping up its quarterly dividend by 15% to $0.095 a share. Roper has delivered 17 consecutive years of higher distributions.

McCormick (NYSE:MKC) is also "spicing" up its payouts. The food-seasoning giant is boosting its quarterly disbursements by 8% to $0.26 a share. This isn't some random sprinkle: McCormick has jacked up its yield in each of the past 24 years.

Handing over more of its Spam money, Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) is upgrading its quarterly rate by 11% to $0.21 a share. If Roper and McCormick have impressive streaks, consider that Hormel has surpassed the two companies combined. Hormel has come through with fatter distribution checks for 44 years in a row.

Finally, we have Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) with a healthy announcement. The medical-device specialist will now send $0.37 a share to its shareholders, a 12% improvement. BD has delivered 37 consecutive years of increasingly chunkier yields.

Some of these moves may not seem like much, but consider the companies going the other way. MainSource Financial (NASDAQ:MSFG) and North Carolina's Peoples Bancorp slashed their dividends last week.

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