Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) is yet again trumping oil and gas rival Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) ahead of both corporate earnings reports. Chevron already had a high yield dividend compared to Exxon, but now the margin just became even wider. Earlier today Exxon lifted the dividend it pays by about 10.5% and that generated a yield of 2.81% at the time. Chevron was already at more than a 3% yield and now its new dividend rate will come up to 3.38%.

Today’s news marks the 26th consecutive year of dividend hikes for Chevron. In all honesty, this is more aggressive than the company had to be. Its dividend was already north of 3% against what is close to a 2.8% for Exxon Mobil even after the dividend was raised by Exxon. Chevron is also slightly leading Exxon now with an implied payout ratio against normalized earnings per share. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $12.43 in earnings per share for 2013, and that generates about 32.2% of normalized earnings paid out before getting into GAAP versus non-GAAP issues. Exxon’s payout ratio is about 31.4% of its expected normalized earnings for 2013.

Chevron’s common dividend is payable on June 10, 2013 to holders of record at the close of business on May 17, 2013. Chevron closed up 0.7% at $118.28 against a 52-week range of $95.73 to $121.56.

We would have liked to have seen more rom the Exxon Mobil dividend hike than we saw. We would have also expected slightly less than what we saw from the Chevron dividend hike. Sometimes some companies just really aim to please.

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