30 Blue Chips Increasing Dividends in Q1

Damn, it feels good to be an income investor.

While dividends are a slow-but-solid way to build wealth over time, dividend stocks have been a sensation ever since last year’s roller-coaster markets had investors grasping for their seat belts.

And 2012 couldn’t be any more welcoming for those converts. S&P Capital IQ projects that dividend payouts could hit a record-breaking $263 billion this year as companies look for productive ways to spend mounting cash hoards. And that’s with dividend-payout ratios at a miserly 27%, or around half the historical average of 50% — meaning there’s almost nowhere to go but up!

Well, if this quarter is any indication, things are right on schedule. Hundreds of companies announced boosts in their payouts this year, as we at InvestorPlace track in our weekly Companies Increasing Dividends feature.

Week after week this quarter, we saw 20, sometimes 25 companies announce dividend hikes — including some real heavy-hitters. One-fifth of the Dow Jones’ members increased their dividends, and five companies that cranked up the cash machine rank among Société Générale’s Top 40 Dividend Stocks in the World!

So without further adieu, here’s a look at 30 of the biggest names on Wall Street that will be giving a little more back to investors this year, including the new payout, the percentage increase, yield based on the end-of-quarter stock price, and payment and record dates:

3M (NYSE:MMM) isn’t necessarily an income juggernaut, but it has been doling out dividends without interruption for almost a century, starting with its original 6-cent payout in 1916. And the most recent hike marked the 54th consecutive year that 3M has raised its dividend. In the past five years alone, the company has returned more than $7 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) was among a number of financial institutions that hiked their dividend payouts after the results of the Fed’s “stress tests.” It was far from the only one, however.

Well, we weren’t going to make you sweat forever. Yes, the long-rumored Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) dividend finally surfaced, followed by champagne-popping across the country. The quarterly dividend — Apple’s first since 1995 — was coupled with the announcement of a $10 billion share-buyback program to begin in 2013. The company will declare the official dividend dates in the next few months, but they’re expected to be sometime during the fiscal fourth quarter, which begins July 1.

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) is another longtime dividend payer. The company has doled out uninterrupted checks since 1893, and it has increased dividends every year for a half-century. And while he may not believe dividends are the best way to use Berkshire Hathaway‘s (NYSE:BRK.B, BRK.A) money, Warren Buffett — the world’s largest KO shareholder — must enjoy the income.

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) didn’t waste any time boosting its dividend after passing the Fed’s stress test, announcing its decision before trading even closed on March 13. This was the company’s second dividend hike following the financial crisis, though JPM’s payout still remains 8 cents per share lower than its pre-crisis dividend.