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%. ...