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Top 10 Dividend Stocks of the Week

James Altucher

Stockpickr has sorted through the list of last week's dividend-raisers and assembled the Top 10 Dividend Increases for the Week of Sept. 8, those stocks with the highest percentage increase in dividends.

The NYSE-traded stock with the most significant dividend increase is CBS(CBS). The television network -- which also owns radio stations, billboards and various publishing companies including Simon & Schuster -- just raised its quarterly dividend by 14%. The 25 cents-a-share payment equates to a 3.2% yield. CBS also announced that it plans to buy back $1.6 billion worth of its stock. CBS stock has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 18 and a P/E-to-growth (PEG) ratio of 2.

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CBS also shows up in the Socially Responsible Large-Cap Stocks, a Stockpickr portfolio that lists publicly traded companies screened for community relations, diversity, labor relations, environmental practices, human rights, product safety and quality and corporate governance. Other dividend-paying stocks on this list include Bank of New York Mellon(BK), which yields 2.4%, and Boston Properties(BXP), a real estate investment trust that yields 2.7%.

Another company that recently raised its dividend is iMergent(IIG), a small-cap ecommerce company that markets StoresOnline software and Web site development platforms. The company increased its dividend by 10% to 11 cents a share and revised its dividend-payment schedule from semiannually to quarterly.

Its board of directors just approved a second share-buyback program of $50 million, for a total of $70 million. In addition, it just reported a huge surge in quarterly earnings from 17 cents a share to 41 cents, a 141% increase. The company has had legal problems with its marketing in California and North Carolina; however, it is confident that the issues will be resolved. The stock has a P/E of 10 and generates a yield of 2.3%.

Verizon Communications(VZ) is another company that recently increased its dividend, raising it 6.2% to 43 cents a share. The latest J.D. Power and Associates research reveals Verizon had the "highest call quality" in the northeast and the midatlantic regions. Verizon has a P/E of 19, a PEG of 2.3 and a yield of 3.8%.

Verizon is a holding of David Dreman, an investor known for his contrarian column in Forbes magazine as well as his role as founder and chief investment manager of Dreman Value Management. Dreman's portfolio includes several dividend-paying stocks including Chevron(CVX), which yields 2.6%, Bank of America(BAC), which yields 5.1%, and Hartford Financial Services(HIG), an insurance company that yields 2.3%.

Another stock on the dividend-raisers list is Susquehanna Bancshares(SUSQ), a Pennsylvania bank holding company that increased its dividend by 4% to 26 cents a share, to yield 5.3%. The stock has a P/E of 12 and a PEG of nearly 2. Susquehanna was one of the Rocket Stocks for June 11th-June 15th.

To see the rest of the week's featured dividend-raisers, check out the Top 10 Dividend Increases for the Week of Sept. 8 at Stockpickr.com.

Please note that due to factors including low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float, we consider iMergent to be a small-cap stock. You should be aware that such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information, and that postings such as this one can have an effect on their stock prices.