By Fred Fuld
Updated at 5:07 p.m. EDT on July 7, 2009

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 who are after the dividend portion of the return, dividend-increasing stocks have a lot of appeal. But according to a report by Standard & Poor's, there has been a recession lately in stocks increasing their dividends. Of the approximately 7,000 publicly owned dividend-paying companies, only 233, a record low, increased their payouts during the second quarter of 2009, a 48.8% plummet from the 455 increasers in the same quarter in 2008.

In addition, according to S&P Senior Index Analyst Howard Silverblatt, dividend decreases are at a record high, and, he says, it's "not a good time for dividend investors."

With this in mind, Stockpickr scoured the recent dividend declarations to find what dividend-raisers there are .

The top news in dividend raises last week was cereal company General Mills (GIS), which declared a beefy 9.3% increase in its quarterly dividend to 47 cents per share, up from 43 cents per share, payable on Aug. 3 to shareholders of record on July 10. This gives this branded and packaged foods company a yield of 3.2%.

The stocks is favored by Dividend Stock Advisor's David Peltier, who recommends that investors focus on companies raising their dividends.

General Mills can easily cover the dividend at 2.1 times earnings. The company has $7.69 billion in debt, with $937 million in cash. On Tuesday, it closed down 51 cents, or 0.8%, at $59.89.

General Mills is owned by Edgemoor Capital, a hedge fund that utilizes a value-oriented approach to equity selection, seeking to maximize returns while reducing the risk. Edgemoor also owns Automatic Data Processing (ADP) which pays a decent yield of 3.9%; Fastenal (FAST), which yields 2.2%; and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), which doesn’t pay a dividend.

Another recent dividend booster was Duke Energy (DUK), which bumped up its dividend by 4% over its dividend for the previous quarter, to 24 cents per share from 23 cents per share. The dividend is payable on Sept. 16 to shareholders of record on Aug. 14. This gives the stock a nice yield of 6.7%.

Duke recently received a favorable ruling from a federal judge on its Carolinas’ Cliffside coal plant expansion. The lawsuit filed by environmental groups to stop plant construction was dismissed. The stock's $1.2 billion in dividend payouts is doubly covered by its operating cash flow of $2.5 billion. It has $15.5 billion in total debt, with cash in the banks of $1.25 billion. Duke closed down 29 cents, or 2%, at $14.32.

Duke is in the portfolio of the Franklin Utilities Fund, which is rated five stars by Morningstar and is managed by John Kohli. The fund has ranked in the top 10% of all funds in its utilities fund category for one-year performance. Franklin also owns Exelon (EXC), which yields 4.3%; Sempra Energy (SRE), which yields 3.2%; and Southern Company (SO), which has a yield of 5.6%.

For more ideas, check out the Top Dividend-Increasers portfolio at Stockpickr.

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