Though first-quarter earnings season is drawing to a close, there are still some earnings reports trickling in that are showing lots of free cash. Coupled with these reports are also some announcements that stocks will be raising dividends. Stocks boosting their dividend yield this week include Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP), PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP), Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY), Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF), Keithley Instruments, Inc. (NYSE: KEI), Teco Energy Inc. (NYSE: TE) and Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ: MCHP).

• Dividend Investment – Union Pacific UNP: On May 6, railroad stock Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) announced it will increase its quarterly dividend on the company’s common shares by 22%. The move makes Union Pacific stock pay 33 cents per share this quarter. The increased dividend is payable July 1 to shareholders of record on May 28. The move boosts UNP stock dividend yield to 1.7%. Union Pacific has paid dividends on its common stock for 111 consecutive years.
• Dividend Investment Pepsico PEP – On May 6, soft drink icon PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) extended its string of dividend increases to 37 consecutive years. Specifically, Pepsi increased is dividend yield by announcing a 6% increase in the annual dividend to $1.80 per PEP stock share. The dividend of 45 cents for the quarter is payable June 30 to shareholders of record on June 5. Based on the new annualized dividend yield rate, PEP stock is currently paying a 3.64% dividend. This will now make it one of the Top Dividend Stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
• Dividend Investment Occidental Petroleum OXY – On May 6, crude oil stock Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) announced today its Board of Directors approaved a 15% increase in the stock’s dividend. The new quarterly payout will be 38 cents a share, raising the annual dividend rate to $1.52 per share. Occidental Petroleum will pay its quarterly dividend on July 15 to shareholders of record as of June 10. Oxy has raised the dividend every year since 2002.
• Dividend Investment Cliffs Natural Resources CLF – Iron ore mining stock Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) announced Tuesday, May 11, that it will increase the quarterly cash dividend for the company’s shares. Specifically, CLF stock will now pay a 14 cent per share dividend, an increase of 60% that will boost the dividend yield on Cliffs Natural Resources significantly.The increased cash dividend will be payable on June 1  to shareholders of record as of Friday, May 14.  The company’s top executives say a strong cash flow outlook for CLF stock means the dividend will likely stay put and perhaps move even higher.
• Dividend Investment Microchip Technology MCHP – Semiconductor stock Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ: MCHP), a leading tech company, announced, announced May 5 that it has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 34.2 cents per share. The dividend is payable on June 2 to MCHP stock shareholders of record on May 19. Microchip Technology offered its first dividend payment in the third quarter of fiscal year 2003, and has increased the dividend 25 times since then. Also of note is that on April 20, UBS upgraded MCHP stock to “buy” from “neutral.” This is a sign that cash flows are strong and the dividend will likely stick around and see further boosts to the MCHP stock dividend yield.
• Dividend Investment Keithley Instruments KEI – Tech stock Keithley Instruments, Inc. (NYSE: KEI), an Ohio-based electronics instruments manufacturer, announced May10 that it will increase its cash dividend. KEI stock will pay a quarterly cash dividend of $0.0375 per common share, which triples the payout from $0.0125 previously. The quarterly dividend for Keithley Instruments also tripled from $0.01 to $0.03 per Class B Common Share. The dividend is payable June 30 to shareholders of record on June 16. KEI stock is thinly traded, and Keithley instruments has a market cap of only about $160 million.
• Dividend Investment Teco Energy TE – Florida energy holding company Teco Energy Inc. (NYSE: TE) announced a week ago that it  has approved an increase to Teco stock’s quarterly dividend. The dividend will now tally 20.5 cents per TE stock share from 20 cents per share previously The dividend is payable May 28 to shareholders of record as of May 14.  The dividend increase brings Teco Energy’s annual dividend rate to 82 cents per share.

As of this writing, Jeff Reeves did not own positions in any of the stocks named here.

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