This last week was less noisy on the corporate news front now that earnings season has ended, but several dividend hikes took place which should really matter to investors. The markets have been busy covering that the S&P 500 hit a new all-time high, the woes of Russia and the Ukraine, interpreting Janet Yellen’s comments on rate hikes, and other issues.

Investors often use dividend analysis as a company’s measurement of the future. After all, when a company raises its dividend, it is generally a signal from the company that its business operations can support the new payout for years and years.

There were other dividend hikes that took place, but these were the six dividend hikes which stood out the most to the 24/7 Wall St. team from this last week.

Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (NYSE: APD) was already posting a 2.3% yield, which is not bad for an industrial player. Shares just hit a new all-time high on Friday of $124.40, even if the $122.15 close was actually down 6 cents from Thursday. The chemicals-and-gasses giant decided to raise its payout by 8.5% to $0.77 per quarter. The new payout takes the dividend up to over 2.5%, and this dividend is also 75% higher than it was from before the great recession began.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) used the stress test news as an opportunity to preempt other banks in the dividend raise. Immediately after the results of its stress tests were out, Discover proposed a dividend hike to $0.24 from $0.20 per share. It also proposed a $1.6 billion share buyback. The new yield of 1.66% (based upon a $57.76 close) may not sound like much. For now, however, this would make it the highest yield of the major credit card issuers. This will also mark the highest payout that Discover has ever made.

DSW Inc. (NYSE: DSW) released earnings, and guidance was a bit under expectations. Still, with earnings estimates of $1.80 to $1.95 in earnings per share, the shoe retailer had plenty of room to raise its annualized dividend of $0.125 per quarter. The dividend hike was a whopping 50% up to $0.1875 per share, or $0.75 per year. This comes to a 40% payout of its normalized earnings.  DSW’s new yield is roughly 2% (1.995%) based on its $37.58 close — and the stock was down almost $3 from its highs on Monday.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) announced a 10% payout increase, a move which received almost no accolades from the media. The new $0.16 per share payout now generates an investor dividend yield of 2.0% based on Friday’s close of $31.95. Keep in mind that HP shares have nearly doubled from the lows of 2013. This is the highest dividend that Hewlett-Packard has ever paid, and it is before Meg Whitman’s turnaround plan has really taken hold. What stands out here is that H-P’s dividend will still only be about 18% of its normalized earnings expectations for 2014, leaving room for more hikes in the future.

Mesa Royalty Trust (NYSE: MTR) is unheard of to most investors, but this royalty trust just announced its highest monthly distribution in quite some time. If you were to annualize this distribution, the payout’s yield equivalent on the monthly payout of $0.258494088 would screen out as being north of 12%. Just keep in mind that these monthly distributions fluctuate, and this may not be any indication of higher payouts being constant. Mesa holds net overriding royalty interests in multiple oil and gas producing properties throughout Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. Mesa remains battered and bruised compared with the oil boom days of 2008 as its unit price — $24.40 on Friday — is only about one-third of its peak.

Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) raised its quarterly dividend by 10% to $0.605 per common share. The new yield of 2.5% is not the highest of its peers, but there are two key takeaways for investors. Its dividend has doubled since before the great recession. This marked the tenth consecutive year that Raytheon has raised its dividend. Raytheon now pays out about 35% of its normalized earnings per share expectations for this year.

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