Latest Dividend Growth: Norfolk Southern And Wendy's Hiked Dividends

Yesterday, eleven companies announced a dividend hike and one stock, Walter Industries, cut dividends from 12.5 cents per share to 1 cent. The biggest dividend hike came from BBCN Bancorp who raised its cash distributions by 50 percent. The current yield of BBCN is at 1.95 percent.

Two big names are on the list of the latest dividend growth companies: Wendy's and Norfolk Southern. 

The railroad company Norfolk Southern hiked its dividends by 4 percent and yields at 2.79 percent. The operating margin of the transportation stock is still very high at 27.90 percent. The company benefits from the current shale gas boom.

The fast food chain Wendy's announced a 25 percent dividend hike. That's a great increase if you look at the fundamentals of the company but the earnings outlook is good. Earnings are expected to grow by 14.33 percent for the next five years. The dividend yield of Wendy's amounts to 2.25 percent.

These are the latest dividend growth stocks from yesterday:

Company	Dividend Yield in %	Dividend Growth	Payment Period	Ex-Dividend Date	Dividend Payment Date
Access National	2.86	10.00%	Quarterly	8/5/2013	8/23/2013
Atlas Pipeline Partners	6.33	5.08%	Quarterly	8/5/2013	8/14/2013
Bar Harbor Bankshares	3.12	1.61%	Quarterly	8/13/2013	9/13/2013
Barnes Group	1.34	10.00%	Quarterly	8/23/2013	9/10/2013
BBCN Bancorp	1.95	50.00%	Quarterly	7/31/2013	8/16/2013
Global Partners	6.14	0.86%	Quarterly	8/1/2013	8/14/2013
MPLX L.P.	3.14	4.59%	Quarterly	7/31/2013	8/14/2013
Norfolk Southern	2.79	4.00%	Quarterly	7/31/2013	9/10/2013
StoneMor Partners	9.22	0.84%	Quarterly	8/1/2013	8/15/2013
SunCoke Energy Partn.	7.38	37.58%	Quarterly	8/13/2013	8/30/2013
Wendy's Co	2.81	25.00%	Quarterly	8/29/2013	9/17/2013

Best Dividend Paying Ex-Dividend Shares On February 07, 2013

The best yielding and biggest ex-dividend stocks researched by ”long-term-investments.blogspot.com”. Dividend Investors should have a quiet overview of stocks with upcoming ex dividend dates.

The ex dividend date is the final date on which the new stock buyer couldn’t receive the next dividend. If you like to receive the dividend, you need to buy the stock before the ex dividend date. I made a little screen of the best yielding stocks with a higher capitalization that have their ex date on the next trading day.

A full list of all stocks with payment dates can be found here: Ex-Dividend Stocks February 07, 2013. In total, 9 stocks and preferred shares go ex dividend - of which 2 yield more than 3 percent. The average yield amounts to 3.32%.

Here is the sheet of the best yielding ex-dividend stocks:

Company	Ticker	Mcap	P/E	P/B	P/S	Yield
AmeriGas Partners LP	APU	4.10B	58.89	2.87	1.40	7.24%
Olin Corp.	OLN	1.90B	12.80	1.90	0.87	3.38%
United Financial Bancorp	UBNK	231.43M	51.59	0.71	3.25	2.67%
Access National Corp.	ANCX	159.39M	9.04	1.75	4.34	2.33%
Apple Inc.	AAPL	429.94B	10.38	3.38	2.61	2.32%
Monarch Financial Holdings	MNRK	67.69M	8.66	0.81	1.51	2.14%
Southern National Bancorp of Virginia	SONA	113.00M	17.11	1.10	3.01	2.05%
U.S. Global Investors, Inc.	GROW	64.24M	80.60	1.64	3.05	1.49%
Altera Corp.	ALTR	11.06B	20.06	3.31	6.20	1.16%

The Best Stocks With Dividend Growth From Last Week (April 23 – April 29, 2012)

Stocks With Biggest Dividend Hikes From Last Week by Dividend Yield – Stock, Capital, Investment. Here is a current sheet of companies that have announced a dividend increase within the recent week. In total, 74 stocks and funds raised dividends of which 39 have a dividend growth of more than 10 percent. The average dividend growth amounts to 45.79 percent. Exactly 19 stocks have a yield over five percent and 37 are currently recommended to buy.