The Top Dividend Stocks of the Week
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%.
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 $150 million of the company's stock. Other companies on the buyback list include
Valspar
(VAL) - Get Report
, with a yield of 2%, and
Ruby Tuesday
(RT)
, with a 3% yield.
Carnival
(CCL) - Get Report
, the famous cruise line, also raised its dividend, boosting it by 14% to 40 cents a share. Its competitor
Royal Caribbean Cruises
(RCL) - Get Report
, just reported a large increase in third-quarter earnings. Carnival has a P/E of 16, a PEG of 1.14 and a yield of 3.3%.
Carnival is in the portfolio of the
(FDVLX), which is rated four stars by Morningstar and has generated an average annual return of 16% for the last three years. The portfolio also holds
Baxter International
(BAX) - Get Report
, which yields 1.1%,
Avon Products
(AVP) - Get Report
, which yields 2%, and
Owens-Illinois
(OI) - Get Report
, which pays 2.8%.
For the complete list, check out the
Top Dividend-Raising Stocks for the Week Ending 10-21-07
at Stockpickr.com.
At the time of publication, Altucher and/or his fund had no positions in stocks mentioned, although positions may change at any time.
James Altucher is president of Stockpickr LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of TheStreet.com and part of its network of Web properties, and a managing partner at Formula Capital, an alternative asset management firm that runs a fund of hedge funds. He is also a weekly columnist for
The Financial Times
and the author of
Trade Like a Hedge Fund
,
Trade Like Warren Buffett
and
SuperCa$h
. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Altucher appreciates your feedback;
to send him an email.
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