Dividend Stocks for the Week

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By Jonas Elmerraji

BALTIMORE (TheStreet) -- For dividend investors, the past week was a quiet one, with only a few companies increasing their dividends. That's no huge surprise given the fact that nearly 70 companies have already slashed their dividends in 2009. But while the week remained relatively quiet for stock dividends, a slew of funds upped their payouts to shareholders, proving that there's always a bull market somewhere.

Dividends are so significant because historically companies that pay dividends materially outperform those that don't, and when the market turns bearish, dividends could be the only semblance of return that investors see for a while.

That's why every week Stockpickr reviews recent dividend declarations and compiles a portfolio of dividend-increasers. These stocks represent some of the most enticing investments on the market right now.

The biggest dividend increase of the past week came from Suncor Energy(SU Quote), which doubled its dividend, raising it to 10 cents from 5 cents. The integrated energy company, which has seen its shares jump 67% since January, traded for the first time last Monday after the acquisition of competitor Petro-Canada.

Suncor is a holding of the Hartford Capital Appreciation Fund, one of the many professional portfolios tracked on Stockpickr. Other Hartford holdings include Raytheon(RTN Quote), which yields 2.7%; Pfizer(PFE Quote), which yields 3.9%; and Merck(MRK Quote), which yields 4.9%.

Suncor, which now yields 1.2%, was recently trading up 94 cents, or 2.9%, at $33.18.

The second stock that increased dividend payouts last week was telecom giant Verizon(VZ Quote). The company raised its dividend from 46 cents to 47.5 cents per share, a 3.3% improvement, in a move referred to by Morgan Stanley analysts as a "corporate vote of confidence in the resiliency of the telecom-services industry."