Top Dividend Stocks of the Week

Here are some of the latest stocks to raise their dividends.
By James Altucher ,

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) - Get Report

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) - Get Report

, 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)

, which yields 0.9%,

First American

(FAF) - Get Report

, yielding 2.4%, and

The Cooper Cos.

(COO) - Get Report

, with a 0.2% yield.

Another company that raised its dividend is

PNC Financial Services Group

(PNC) - Get Report

, 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) - Get Report

, with a 3.3% yield,

Chevron

(CVX) - Get Report

, with a 2.6% yield, and

Kimberly-Clark

(KMB) - Get Report

, at a 3.6% yield.

HB Fuller

(FUL) - Get Report

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) - Get Report

, with a yield of 0.9%,

American Eagle Outfitters

(AEO) - Get Report

, with a yield of 2.2%, and

Aflac

(AFL) - Get Report

, 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.

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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