Top Dividend Stocks of the Week

Updated from 7:07 a.m. EDT

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's last week reported that the number of publicly traded companies that increased their dividends during the first quarter of 2008 dropped substantially over the same quarter of 2007, from 740 stocks to 598 stocks.

Fortunately for investors, several companies last week increased their payouts. Stockpickr has sorted through the names and compiled a list of the Top Dividend-Raisers for the Week Ending April 5.

TJX Companies (TJX Quote) boosted its dividend last week, raising its quarterly payout by 22% to 11 cents a share. This discount-retail company, whose chains include T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, just disclosed that it may have to pay as much as $24 million to MasterCard (MA Quote), and ultimately some of its credit card holders, for a data breach relating to exposure of credit card numbers to hackers. TJX stock has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 19.5, a P/E-to-growth (PEG) ratio of 1.2 and a yield of 1.3%.

TJX is in the portfolio of David J. Greene and Co., a money management company that has about $2.5 billion under management. Greene also owns shares of Cytec Industries (CYT Quote), which yields 0.9%, First American (FAF Quote), yielding 2.4%, and The Cooper Cos. (COO Quote), with a 0.2% yield.

Another company that raised its dividend is PNC Financial Services Group (PNC Quote), a diversified financial services company that bumped up its quarterly dividend by 5% to 66 cents a share. PNC just completed its acquisition of Sterling Financial Corp. at a cost of roughly $224 million in cash and 4.6 million shares of PNC stock. The stock has a P/E of 15.7, a PEG of 1.4 and a yield of 3.7%.

One of the mutual funds that owns PNC shares is the Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund, which invests the majority of its funds in investment-grade corporate and U.S. Treasury bonds with the balance in stocks with above-average dividends. The five-star Morningstar-rated fund also owns shares of General Electric (GE Quote), with a 3.3% yield, Chevron (CVX Quote), with a 2.6% yield, and Kimberly-Clark (KMB Quote), at a 3.6% yield.

HB Fuller (FUL Quote) also raised its quarterly dividend last week by 2.3% to 6.6 cents a share. This adhesives and specialty chemical products manufacturer just reported fiscal first-quarter earnings that revealed a 12.5% drop in net income on a 3.2% reduction in revenue. The stock has a P/E of 13, a PEG of 1.9 and a yield of 1.3%.

Fuller shows up in the Insider Purchases and Buybacks XXXIX, a Stockpickr portfolio from February that also includes FactSet Research Systems (FDS Quote), with a yield of 0.9%, American Eagle Outfitters (AEO Quote), with a yield of 2.2%, and Aflac (AFL Quote), with a 1.5% yield.

To see more stocks with newly higher yields, check out the Top Dividend-Raisers for the Week Ending April 5 at Stockpickr.com.