These days, it seems like the bad news never ends. Market volatility continues, and companies such as New York Times (NYT) and Ashland (ASH) are cutting their dividends.

But last week, several companies went the other route and actually raised their dividends, which is a major statement in this economy.

Stockpickr has reviewed the dividend announcements from the past week and compiled a list of the top dividend-increasers.

The biggest dividend-increaser by far was regional aireline SkyWest (SKYW), which bumped up its dividend by an astounding 33% to 4 cents per share. The company has continued to purchase shares under its current repurchase program, with 5.5 million shares of common stock authorized. In April, TheStreet.com Ratings downgraded the stock to hold. SkyWest has a reasonable P/E ratio of 5 and a very favorable PEG ratio of 0.48.

SkyWest shows up in a Stockpickr portfolio called Utah Stocks of companies based in Utah. The portfolio also contains Huntsman (HUN, with a yield of 6.1%; Questar (STR), which yields 1.8%; and Zions Bancorp (ZION), which yields 4.9%.

Another recent dividend-raiser is Nike Inc. (NKE), the leading shoe and clothing company, which boosted its dividend by 9% to 25 cents per share. Kristin Bentz, the Talented Blonde, recently mentioned Nike in a story about how golf-related stocks are doing well. The stock has a P/E of 12 and a low PEG ratio of 0.87.

Nike happens to be one of the favorites of Warren Buffett, top investor and the richest man in the world. Buffett also likes Torchmark (TMK), with a 1.8% yield; Goldman Sachs (GS), which has a 2.5% yield and is owned by Jim Cramer in his Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust; and ConocoPhillips (COP), with a yield of 4.1%. Buffett recently added to his position in ConocoPhillips, buying 24.3 million shares.

For more ideas, check out the list of the top dividend-increasers during the last week at Stockpickr.com.

Posted on Nov. 24, 2008