The Top Dividend Stocks of the Week

These are the latest stocks to reward investors with a raised dividend the week ended Oct. 19.
By James Altucher ,

Some of last week's announced dividend increases were substantial. Of the top 10 dividend-raisers, more than half increased their payouts by 10%-plus. That's a bullish sign, especially during a week when the market dropped more than 500 points.

Stockpickr has gone through the entire list of dividend raisers and put together a list of the stocks with the greatest dividend increases on a percentage basis, compiling them in the

Top Dividend-Raising Stocks for the Week

.

Near the top of the list is

Texas Instruments

(TXN) - Get Report

, which raised its quarterly dividend by 25% to 10 cents a share. The company just reported an 11% increase in third-quarter earnings, primarily due to lower manufacturing costs and an increase in demand for analog chips. This is in spite of a 3% drop in revenue. The stock has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 20, a P/E-to-growth ratio of 1 and a yield of 1.2%.

Ken Fisher

has taken an interest in the stock. Fisher is a money manager overseeing $30 billion in assets and is also a columnist for

Forbes

magazine. He also likes

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold

(FCX) - Get Report

, which yields 1.1%,

Lehman Brothers

( LEH), with a yield of 1%, and

Rio Tinto

( RTP), which yields 1.2%.

Another company that raised its dividend last week is

Packaging Corp. of America

(PKG) - Get Report

, which upped its payment by 20% to $1.20 a share. The company just reported record third-quarter earnings of $49 million, or 46 cents a share, vs. last year's earnings of 42 cents a share. Overall net sales increased 2.8%, but its exported sales were up 16% for the quarter. The stock has a P/E of 20 and a yield of 3.9%.

PKG appears on Stockpickr's

Insider Purchases and Buybacks 10-18

portfolio, due to the fact that the board authorized the repurchase of up to $150 million of the company's stock. Other companies on the buyback list include

Valspar

(VAL) - Get Report

, with a yield of 2%, and

Ruby Tuesday

(RT)

, with a 3% yield.

Carnival

(CCL) - Get Report

, the famous cruise line, also raised its dividend, boosting it by 14% to 40 cents a share. Its competitor

Royal Caribbean Cruises

(RCL) - Get Report

, just reported a large increase in third-quarter earnings. Carnival has a P/E of 16, a PEG of 1.14 and a yield of 3.3%.

Carnival is in the portfolio of the

Fidelity Value

(FDVLX), which is rated four stars by Morningstar and has generated an average annual return of 16% for the last three years. The portfolio also holds

Baxter International

(BAX) - Get Report

, which yields 1.1%,

Avon Products

(AVP) - Get Report

, which yields 2%, and

Owens-Illinois

(OI) - Get Report

, which pays 2.8%.

For the complete list, check out the

Top Dividend-Raising Stocks for the Week Ending 10-21-07

at Stockpickr.com.

At the time of publication, Altucher and/or his fund had no positions in stocks mentioned, although positions may change at any time.

James Altucher is president of Stockpickr LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of TheStreet.com and part of its network of Web properties, and a managing partner at Formula Capital, an alternative asset management firm that runs a fund of hedge funds. He is also a weekly columnist for

The Financial Times

and the author of

Trade Like a Hedge Fund

,

Trade Like Warren Buffett

and

SuperCa$h

. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Altucher appreciates your feedback;

click here

to send him an email.

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