You wouldn't know we were in a recession from all the dividend-increasers we've had during the last week.

Jim Cramer has been a strong advocate of stocks that have strong dividends, and more than a dozen companies in various industries raised their dividends during the last several days.

Stockpickr has reviewed the recent dividend declarations and compiled a list of the top dividend-raisers for the week.

One of the top dividend-increasers was Interactive Data (IDC), a provider of financial and stock market data, analytics and other financial services to traders and institutions. The company, which is rated a buy by TheStreet.com Ratings, bumped up its quarterly dividend by an amazing 33.3% to 20 cents per share, giving it a yield of 2.7%. It has a P/E ratio of 16 and a PEG ratio of 1.23, both ratios of which are slightly higher than industry averages.

Interactive is owned by the Morgan Stanley Institutional Small Company Fund, which is rated four stars by Morningstar and invests in small domestic and foreign stocks, usually with market caps of less than $4 billion. The fund has had an average annual return of -0.3% over the last five years, outperforming its category benchmark of -1.4% during the same time frame. The fund also owns Techne (TECH), with a yield of 0.4%; Strayer Education (STRA), with a 0.9% yield; and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP), which has a yield of 9.5% and invests in projects that generate stable and growing cash flows.

Another dividend-raiser last week was Wisconsin Energy (WEC), the electric and natural gas utility that serves Wisconsin and Michigan. It boosted its dividend by a strong 25% to 33.75 cents per share. Jim Cramer said recently that Wisconsin Energy is a stock "worth grabbing." The company, which is also considering a share buyback, has a P/E of 14 and a PEG ratio of 1.53. It currently yields 2.5%.

Wisconsin Energy is owned by Pzena Investment Management, a hedge fund with $16 billion under management. It is a classic investment manager that invests in deeply undervalued stocks. Other stocks it owns include Capital One Financial (COF), with a yield of 4.8%; Allstate (ALL), with a yield of 6.8%; and Whirlpool (WHR), which has a 4.3% yield and recently announced additional employment cuts.

For more ideas, check out the portfolio of top dividend-raisers for the week at Stockpickr.com.

Join other members of the Stockpickr community for a discussion of dividend stocks and see what others are buying.

Posted on Dec. 8, 2008