December can be an odd month for many investors and corporations alike. While tax planning can always come up as an issue for investors, and while December can be a slow month on other fronts, many dividend plans and buyback plans for the following year get announced. 24/7 Wall St. has seen some dramatic news for the start of December when it comes to higher dividends and large stock buyback announcements.

There may be some good news on top of good news here. The dividend hikes and buyback announcements likely will continue coming for the next week or two, and then the news flow probably will take a back seat to the holidays. These are the top dividend hikes and stock buybacks tracked by 24/7 Wall St. for the start of December. Dividend hikes and stock buybacks are the two most popular methods of returning capital to shareholders under corporate governance plans. Again, there will be more dividend hike and stock buyback announcements this month.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) was the first of the five big Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dividend hikes we expect for December. What was impressive here was that Disney’s dividend hike blew our expectations out of the water. Perhaps it was all the excitement and buzz around the new Star Wars promotion for 2015 that gave the company confidence. Either way, Bob Iger has done an absolutely wonderful job, and the stock sure feels as though Disney is on the path to being the next $100 DJIA stock. Disney’s yield remains perpetually low, but some of that is due to its stock rally never coming to an end.

ALSO READ: Intel’s Surprise Dividend Hike (Late November)

Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) is now the post-merger Kinder Morgan. It has been under a cloud of lower oil prices just like the rest of the sector. The good news is that Kinder Morgan came out in the first week of December and outlined its dividend budget of $2.00 per share for 2015. The announcement was with a lower expectation on the price of oil, and it did not include the double-digit growth assumptions (but that was also not thrown out either). This news was important because the merger closing date took place around Thanksgiving and was within days of the most recent low in oil prices.

MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) delivered on its dividend growth and stock buyback plans, and it is effectively mirroring dividend and buyback moves by rival Visa Inc. (NYSE: V). The companies are both saying: what worry about Apple Pay! MasterCard’s dividend yield still sounds low, but the percentage gain was by 45% to $0.16 per share per quarter. The company also approved a $3.5 billion stock buyback plan, on top of the more than $200 million remaining under its existing stock buyback plan.

Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB) showed that the Canadians might not be too worried about lower oil prices either. This pipeline outfit for natural gas liquids and oil products raised its dividend by a whopping 33%. Enbridge also said that its board of directors is considering a 67% interest transfer in the U.S. segment of the Alberta Clipper pipeline to Enbridge Energy Partners, which if approved, is expected to be completed by the end of 2014. That could lead to more good news in 2015.

ALSO READ: Credit Suisse’s Top MLPs to Buy for 2015 as Oil Tumble Continues

ONEOK Partners L.P. (NYSE: OKS) is a high-yield master limited partnership (MLP) with a distribution rate (yield equivalent) of roughly 7%. With oil prices having fallen from over $100 down to well under $70, this MLP’s units have fallen by about one-third before recovering lately. The ONEOK outfit said this last week that its long-term distribution targets remain in place. The firm’s capex guidance seemed high, but 2015 guidance on the distribution, discounted cash flow and EBITDA seem fine. ONEOK Partners also communicated that it expects its distribution growth to be 6% to 8% from 2014 to 2017. If that holds true, the buyers now of the 7% yield could be sitting on closer to a 9% yield in 2017.

There have been a couple dozen more dividend or buyback announcements in the past week, but 24/7 Wall St. has focused only on the smaller plans. More recent buybacks and dividends in the news since the start of December were as follows:

American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT) announced on December 2 that its board of directors had declared its quarterly cash distribution of $0.38 per share on its common stock. The prior payout was $0.36 per share, and this is key because the company has completed its move into being a real estate investment trust.

Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) declared a 20% hike for its quarterly dividend to $0.12 per share, and its board of directors authorized a new $1.5 billion share repurchase program through the end of 2016. Corning’s market cap is $27 billion, and the new $0.48 annualized dividend will generate a current yield of about 2.25%.

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE: ECL) has seen its shares pull back from highs, but the company recently declared a 20% increase in its quarterly cash dividend to $0.33 per common share, up from the prior dividend of $0.275 per share. This dividend hike represents Ecolab’s 23rd consecutive annual dividend rate increase. The new yield is still low at 1.2%, and the $1.32 annualized payout compares to earnings per share estimates of $4.19 in 2014 and $4.78 in 2015.

ALSO READ: Analyst Picks Top MLPs Insulated From Low Oil Prices

L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LLL) recently authorized a new share repurchase program that allows the company to repurchase up to an additional $1.5 billion of the company’s common stock through the end of June 2017. This represents L-3’s seventh repurchase program. On top of this plan, L-3’s chairman and CEO said L-3 will continue with its capital allocation strategy by committing robust free cash flow to enhance shareholder value in the form of share repurchases and dividend payments. L-3’s market cap is $10.6 billion.

Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) announced on December 4 that its board of directors has authorized an additional $3 billion for the repurchase of the company’s common stock. Such share buybacks will take place from time to time, and of course are subject to market conditions and management’s discretion, in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions. Northrop Grumman has a market cap of almost $30 billion.

ON Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: ONNN) said on December 1 that it intends to return approximately 80% of free cash flow less repayments of long-term debt to shareholders. The company approved a $1 billion stock buyback approval over the next four years as a result. While $1 billion may not sound massive, the company’s market cap is just under $4.5 billion.

WABCO Holdings Inc. (NYSE: WBC) has been authorized to enter into an additional two-year share repurchase program to acquire up to an additional $500 million of common shares through the end of December 2016. The company said that it has now returned $962 million in cash to shareowners through the repurchase of 13,483,461 million shares in open market transactions since the initiation of WABCO’s first share buyback program in June 2011. Its market cap is about $6.2 billion.

ALSO READ: Highest Yielding Utility Stocks Still Look Solid for 2015

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