By Stockpickr Staff
Updated at 11:04 a.m. on March 18, 2009

If a stock has raised its dividend regularly over many years, that means it's a good buy, right?

Not necessarily. According to RealMoney's Gary Dvorchak, long-term dividend performance is not what matters right now, "since those records were built mostly during good times." Rather, he likes the companies that are currently raising dividends, in the midst of a bad recession.

Every week, Stockpickr reviews the recent dividend declarations and compiles a portfolio of the top dividend-raisers for the previous week.

One of last week's dividend-increasers was Piedmont Natural Gas (PNY), which boosted its dividend by 3.9%, increasing the payout from 26 cents to 27 cents per share per quarter and giving the stock a yield of 4.6%. The dividend is payable April 15 to shareholders of record as of March 25. This is both a short-term and along-term dividend-increaser, having raised its dividend annually for 31 years.

Piedmont, a natural gas distributor, just announced that its first-quarter profit fell 2%, primarily due to lower revenues from the recession and a reduction in new construction. In spite of that, dividend payouts of about $75 million are more than covered by the company's net income of $108 million. However, the company does have $1.3 billion in debt with only $22.9 million in cash.

The stock was trading down 6 cents at $24 on Wednesday morning.

Piedmont Natural Gas is one of the holdings of the Lord Abbett Small-Cap Value Fund, a five-star Morningstar-rated fund currently managed by Gerard S.E. Heffernan Jr. The fund is ranked in the top 3% for the last five years of all the funds in its category of small blend funds. Other stocks it owns include Curtiss-Wright (CW), which yields 1.2%; Carlisle Companies (CSL), yielding 3%; and Financial Federal (FIF), which pays 3.1%.

Another dividend increaser is Warwick Valley Telephone (WWVY), a small-cap telecommunications company based in Warwick, N.Y. It raised its dividend by 10%, effective for the first quarter of 2009, giving the stock a yield of 9.5%. The new quarterly rate of 22 cents is up from 20 cents and will be paid on March 31 to shareholders of record as of March 20.

Warwick just announced that its bid for the acquisition of the VoIP assets of USA Datanet, a New York-based business telecom services company, has been accepted. The company has operating cash flow of $9.8 million, which is more than enough to cover the $4.7 million in dividend payouts. It has almost as much cash, $5.6 million, as it does in debt, at $6.1 million.

The stock was trading up 42 cents at $9.94 on Wednesday morning.

Warwick is also held by the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, which has a Morningstar rating of three stars and is managed by Gerard O'Reilly. The fund is ranked in the top 35% for the last five years of all the funds in its category of large blend funds. Some of its other holdings include Exxon Mobil (XOM), with a yield of 2.4%; Procter & Gamble (PG), with a 3.3% yield; and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), with a 3.6% yield.

For more ideas, check out the top dividend-raisers portfolio on Stockpickr.

Who’s on Stockpickr Answers? Tim Melvin will be on Stockpickr Answers on March 18 to respond to investing and trading questions posed by members of the Stockpickr community. Not a member? Join the Stockpickr community today -- free.

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