By Stockpickr Staff
Posted on May 20, 2009

Shipping company Teekay Tanker (TNK) are recently cut its dividend, as did SunTrust Banks (STI), which was told to raise capital following the government stress tests.

But in some sectors, companies are not only not cutting their dividends but raising them. For example, three telecom companies boosted their shareholder payouts last week.

Stockpickr has reviewed the dividend declarations from the past week and compiled a portfolio of recent dividend-increasers.

Portland General Electric Company (POR) announced a 4% increase to its quarterly stock dividend, to 25.5 cents per share from 24.5 cents per share for the previous quarter. This gives the stock a CD-beating yield of 5.6%. The dividend is payable on July 15 to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 25.

Portland General recently reported that its first-quarter profit rose 11% to 47 cents per share, from 44 cents per share for the same period last year. Its revenue rose 3%, from $471 million to $485 million, slightly below analysts' expectations. The company's annual dividend payout of $76.63 million is covered by its operating cash flow of $106 million. Its total debt amounts to $1.44 billion, with $47 million in cash.

Portland General is owned by the Keeley Small Cap Value Fund, a five-star Morningstar-rated fund managed by John Keeley. The fund has ranked in the top 12% of all funds in its category of small blend funds for the last five years. It also owns Valmont Industries (VMI), with a yield of 1%; Amcol International (ACO), with a yield of 3.6%; and Kaydon, (KDN) with a 2.2% yield.

Maybe the stock market turmoil is causing people to up their beer consumption, because Molson Coors Brewing (TAP) announced that it has approved a 20% increase to its quarterly dividend, from 20 cents per share to 24 cents per share, payable on June 15 to shareholders of record on May 29. This dividend increase provides shareholders with a yield of 1.9%.

A couple of weeks ago, Standard & Poor's lowered its corporate credit rating to BBB- from BBB but also removed the credit-watch-negative status for Molson Coors. Speaking of credit ratings, the company's total debt is approximately $1.6 billion, with $94.4 million in cash. The dividend payout of $147.2 million is very well-covered by the company's operating cash flow of $542.5 million.

Molson Coors is one of the new purchases of Clovis Capital Management, a New York City-based money management firm with more than $700 million under management. It also owns J. M. Smucker (SJM), which pays a yield of 3.5%; ConAgra Foods (CAG), with a 4.3% yield; and Western Union (WU), which pays a slight yield of 0.2%.

For more ideas, check out the dividend-increasers portfolio at Stockpickr.

At the time of publication, the author had no positions in stocks mentioned.