With all the turmoil in the financial markets recently, and all the significant drops, it is nice to see that some companies are still doing well and raising the dividends on their stocks. Recent dividend-increasers include a couple of food companies and a couple of real estate companies.

Stockpickr has reviewed all the dividend declarations from the last week and compiled a list of the top dividend-increasers for the week.

One of the stocks that increased its dividend last week was Choice Hotels International (CHH), which bumped up its quarterly dividend by 9% to 18.5%. The company's brands include Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Clarion, Econo Lodge, Quality, Sleep Inn, Rodeway Inn and MainStay Suites. It reported a second-quarter earnings drop of 6% due to a one -ime expense. However, excluding the one-time charge, earnings per share were 49 cents, vs. 43 cents for the same period last year. The stock has a P/E of 17 and a PEG of 1.83, and it pays a yield of 2.5%.

Choice is owned by Force Capital Management, a $1.9 billion multi-strategy hedge fund founded by Robert Jaffe. It has reportedly returned an annualized 17% since inception. Force also owns Allegheny Energy (AYE), with a 1.4% yield; Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX), with a 2.4% yield; and Union Pacific (UNP), with a 1.4% yield.

Another dividend-increaser is Kraft Foods (KFT), which boosted its quarterly dividend by 7.4% to 29 cents per share. Interestingly, the stock had the biggest decrease in short interest of all the NYSE stocks last week. The stock has a P/E of 20, a PEG of 2.51 and a yield of 3.5%.

Kraft is one of the stocks favored by Warren Buffett, head of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) and the richest man in the world. Buffett also likes Coca-Cola (KO), with a yield of 2.8%; Wells Fargo (WFC), with a yield of 4%; and Procter & Gamble (PG), with a yield of 2.2%.

Tyco International (TYC) is another stock that increased its quarterly dividend, raising it by 33% to 20 cents per share. Former Tyco International executives L. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz recently announced that they are filing appeals to their fraud convictions. The stock has a P/E of 15, a PEG of 0.66 and a yield of 2%.

Tyco is owned by the Kinetics Medical Fund, which invests in stocks involved in medical research, cancer research and drug development. The fund has had an average annual return of 10.81% over the last three years. Kinetics also owns Wyeth (WYE), with a 2.8% yield; Novartis (NVS), with a 2.7% yield; and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), with a 4.7% yield.

For the rest of the top dividend-increasers for the week, go to Stockpickr.com.

Posted on Sept. 16, 2008