4 Dividend Stocks Showing You the Money

Dividend checks continue to get fatter in corporate America, as more companies jack up their distribution rates.

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

Let's start with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT  ) . The world's largest software company is boosting its quarterly disbursements by 25% to $0.20 a share. The tech giant wasn't even paying dividends a decade ago, but shares of Mr. Softy are now yielding a healthy 3.2%.

McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) celebrated a ridiculous milestone this year. The burger baron has now come through with a whopping 100 consecutive months of year-over-year same-store sales growth on a global basis. Its payout streak isn't as impressive, though Mickey D's has come through with higher declarations every year since 1976. Its latest move is a 15% increase, pushing its quarterly rate to $0.70 a share.

The best defense is a good offense at Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT  ) , as the defense contractor is cranking up its quarterly distributions by 33% to $1 a share. Lockheed Martin also increased its share repurchasing intentions by $2.5 billion, returning more money to shareowners.

Buoyed -- or perhaps Chef Boyardee'd -- by its strong cash flows, food giant ConAgra (NYSE: CAG  ) is inching its dividend 4% higher. Investors will now be receiving $0.24 a share every three months.

These companies are joined by Cincy-based banker Fifth Third Bank (Nasdaq: FITB  ) and Irish health-care products maker Covidien (NYSE: COV  ) in jacking up their distributions.

Subscribers to the In! come Inv estor 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.

If you want to track these stocks to see if and when they hike their payout again:

• Add Microsoft to My Watchlist.
• Add McDonald's to My Watchlist.
• Add Lockheed?Martin to My Watchlist.
• Add Fifth?Third?Bancorp to My Watchlist.
• Add Covidien to My Watchlist.
• Add ConAgra?Foods to My Watchlist.