The retailer of medium- to higher-priced apparel for fashion-focused young men and women last Monday announced a $3 special dividend, hiked its payout 20% and declared a 3-for-2 stock split. Buckle (BKE) notched up its quarterly common dividend to 30 cents a share (20 cents post-split) from 25 cents. The $3 bonus and the new quarterly are both payable Oct. 27, and the ex-dividend date for both is Oct. 10. Additional shares resulting from the split will be distributed Oct. 30, with an ex-date of Oct. 31. All three transactions have a record date of Oct. 15. The company has been repurchasing its stock, too. Debt-free Buckle hails from Nebraska, where it was founded in 1948. It paid its first dividend in 2003 and has enriched payouts every year since. In January 2007, it distributed a $2 split-adjusted special dividend and divided its shares 3-for-2.

WITH ASSETS OF $40.4 BILLION, Denver-based ProLogis (PLD) is the world's largest owner, manager and developer of distribution facilities. The real-estate investment trust has enhanced its common dividend every year since going public in 1994, and 2009 will be no different, although it did scale back its 2008 earnings guidance. ProLogis boosted its quarterly 10%, to 57 cents a share from 51.75 cents, effective in 2009's first quarter. Yielding 5.15%, the stock's 52-week high and low on the Big Board are 73.35 and 33.26. It currently trades around 40.

THE U.S. MARKET LEADER in fruit spreads, peanut butter, cooking oils and ice-cream toppings (Jif and Crisco are just two of its brands), J.M. Smucker (SJM) last Monday officially declared a $5 special dividend announced in June. The move was in connection with the merging of Procter & Gamble's Folgers coffee business into Smucker via an all-stock transaction valued at $3.3 billion. Investors of record Sept. 30 will receive the special dividend Oct. 31. The ex-date is Sept. 26. Smucker has paid regular dividends since 1949, sweetening them for 11 straight years. Its stock trades on the Big Board around 53 and yields 2.39%.