40 Blue Chips Increasing Dividends in Q2

While financial stocks’ share momentum has mostly waned since their red-hot first quarter, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) had one piece of good news in Q2: Its first dividend increase since December 2005, prompted by strong first-quarter results. And it was a whopper, too, at more than 30%! GS shares have since tanked almost 20%, however, bringing the yield to nearly 2%.

It might not be the first sector that comes to mind when you think yield, but tech has several solid dividend citizens — and that includes Intel (NASDAQ:INTC). Intel has a sturdy business and a loyal customer base, but one thing it has been missing is a solid footing in mobile. But that void might be filled with the debut of the Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Surface, which features Intel processors in the higher-end versions. A potentially rejuvenated future can give you hope for growth — but even if INTC treads water, you can enjoy its 3%-plus yield.

Regional banks are another lesser-ballyhooed source of income, but KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) and PNC Financial (NYSE:PNC) are two that yield well north of 2% and bumped up their payouts in the past three months. KeyCorp really impressed by juicing its dividend by 66%, to 5 cents per share.

This stock features one of the most well-known drink brands in the world, has enjoyed decent gains for the first half of 2012 and yields more than 3%. If you guessed Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), you’d be wrong. Perpetual soft-drink No. 2 (well, No. 3 if you bring Diet Coke into the conversation) PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) bumped up its dividend last month, and it now yields 3% to KO’s 2.6%. Of course, both are solid sources of income with several avenues for international growth, so in this cola war, everybody wins.