Not every company is slashing its dividend these days. Some of the market's better performers are easing up on their purse strings, sending more money out to their shareholders.

Readers of the Motley Fool Income Investor newsletter can certainly appreciate that kind of thinking. Let's take a closer look at some of the companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.

Let's start with VF (NYSE: VFC). The lifestyle apparel maker is stitching an alteration on its quarterly dividend. The new rate will be $0.60 a share. It may just be a token penny improvement, but VF has now boosted its yield for 37 consecutive years.

Strayer Education (Nasdaq: STRA) is also bringing new meaning to its higher learning calling. The post-secondary educator is making the grade with its new $0.75-a-share quarterly payout, a 50% upgrade. This is a sector that has thrived during the recession. In its latest quarter, Strayer's revenue and earnings have risen 31% and 42% respectively.

Generic and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals specialist Perrigo (Nasdaq: PRGO) is also delivering healthier disbursements. Perrigo's injecting its quarterly dividend by 12% to $0.0625 a share.

Finally, we have paperboard and containerboard maker RockTenn (NYSE: RKT) making its paper checks more valuable. RockTenn's new payout of $0.15 a share every three months is 50% higher than its previous rate.

Some of these moves may not seem like much, but consider the insurers and financial services companies that have slashed -- or completely eliminated -- their quarterly disbursements. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Fifth Third Bank (Nasdaq: FITB) are now distributing a token $0.01 a shareevery quarter. Susquehanna Bancshares (Nasdaq: SUSQ) became the latest banker to follow suit with the $0.01 a share quarterly dividend last week.

Subscribers to the Income Investor newsletter can appreciate the companies sending more and more money to their investors. The newsletter singles out companies that are committed to growing their distributions with market-thumping results.

Want to see what is being recommended these days? Go ahead and give the newsletter service a shot with a 30-day trial subscription. Who knows? Maybe the next thing that will get hiked will be your interest.

This article was originally published as 4 Dividend Stocks Showing You the Moneyon Fool.com

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