By Stockpickr Staff
Updated at 4:20 p.m. EDT on June 17, 2009, with closing share prices.

There are basically two ways for a stock owner to make money: through the capital appreciation of the share price and through the dividend payout.

For investors that are after dividend portion of the return, dividend-increasing stocks have a lot of appeal. Stockpickr has reviewed all the stocks that declared dividends last week and came up with a list of the top dividend-increasers for the week.

One of the biggest increases in dividends last week was at the defensive stock Clorox (CLX), the manufacturer of consumer products ranging from Pine-Sol to Armor All to Burt's Bees to Glad bags. Clorox boosted its dividend by 9% to 50 cents per share per quarter, or $2 on an annualized basis; the new dividend is payable Aug. 14 to holders of record July 27.

Jim Cramer believes that investors are moving to more defensive stocks such as Clorox, at least temporarily, due to the price of oil moving above $70 a barrel. The stock also a big increase in its rating from Oppenheimer, from underperform to outperform.

It pays a decent yield of 3.3%, and its dividend payout of $255.87 million is easily covered by its operating cash flow of $677 million. Debt is fairly high at $3.26 billion, with only $117 million in total cash. Clorox closed up 36 cents, or 0.6%, at $56.68 on Thursday.

Clorox is owned by the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, a large-blend fund rated three stars by Morningstar and ranked in the top 35% of all funds in its category for the last five years. Vanguard also owns Exxon Mobil (XOM), which yields 2.3%; Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), yielding 3.5%; and International Business Machines (IBM), which pays a yield of 2%.

Another dividend-booster was Target (TGT), which increased its quarterly dividend to 17 cents from 16 cents per common share, a 6.25% increase. The dividend is payable on Sept. 10 to shareholders of record Aug. 20.

Although the Commerce Department just reported that May retail sales grew by 0.5%, department store retailers actually posted a decline. Target pays a dividend of 1.7%, with total payouts of $512 million, covered nine times over by its operating cash flow of $4.69 million. It has $18.8 million in debt and $1.37 billion in cash. Target closed down 3 cents at $39.02.

Target is one of the shareholdings of Pershing Square Capital Management, an activist hedge fund founded in 2003 and managed by Bill Ackman. Pershing also owns Visa (V), which yields 0.7%; Wendy's/Arby's Group (WEN), yielding 1.5%; and Sears Holdings (SHLD), which doesn't pay a dividend.

For other dividend raising stock ideas, check out Stockpickr.com.

Author does not own any of the above.