The Best Dividend Hikes of the Week (KO, HFC, KMB, TXN, WMT, XRX)

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) took its dividend up yet again, proving its dividend aristocrat status. Shares are still 6% south of a 52-week high and yield was already 2.7%. Coke raised its quarterly payout by 10% to $0.28 per share per quarter and the yield is almost 3% now. Our take: Coke leads Pepsi in the dividend investor taste test, although Jim Cramer thinks Pepsi is better right now.

HollyFrontier Corporation (NYSE: HFC) might not sound like an exciting dividend on the surface, but it is. The refiner lifted its payout a sharp 50% to $0.30 per share as the fifth increase in the regular dividend since the merger in July 2011. It also announced a special cash dividend of $0.50 per share and that was the 8th special dividend since August 2011. If you combine the common and special payouts as a norm, the yield is 5.7% announalized. Otherwise the yield is closer to 2.2%.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) just put more pressure on its consumer products peers to raise their quarterly payouts. It increased its dividend payout by about one-tenth even when its shares were already at all-time highs. The 3.2% yield was already high, but now that will be a 3.5% yield for investors who want to chase the stock with new money.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) is magically back up to within 1% a 52-week high. The company added $5 billion to its stock buyback plan (against a $37 billion market cap) and the dividend was raised by one-third to $0.28 from $0.21 per share per quarter. TI’s yield was already good at 2.5% and now that will be about 3.2%. A near 5% gain was hard to ignore in the stock price.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) had earnings which were disappointing when you look at guidance and low same-store sales. The blame: payroll tax and delayed tax refunds. What bailed Wal-Mart out of a bad week was an 18% dividend hike to $1.88 on an annualized basis. The world’s largest retailer was paying almost 2.3% for a dividend yield but that is now going to be right at 2.7%.

Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) is a boring “technology” play that we might just consider an office products play now. A dividend of $0.575 does not sound that high until you consider that the stock was under $8.00 at the time. This represents a gain of more than one-third and the new yield is just under 3% at $2.92%. Argus liked it enough to spend the hours required to write a two-page “reiterated buy” rating and the call sent shares up 3% Friday because the price target of $13 on the stock implies more than 50% upside for investors. This was the first dividend hike in years.

We would like to end with a list of the top dividend stocks held in the Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway portfolio.