Not every company is slashing its dividend these days. Some of the market's better performers are easing up on their purse strings and sending more money out to their shareholders. So let's take a closer look at some of the companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.

We can start with DeVry (NYSE: DV - News). The postsecondary educator is moving to the head of the class by increasing its annual dividend rate by 25% to $0.20 a share. DeVry's sector has been resilient through the recession, as nervous and displaced workers try to learn new job skills to remain relevant in the workforce.

Chunkier dividend checks are as easy as AmerisourceBergen's (NYSE: ABC - News) ticker symbol. The pharmaceuticals-services provider is jacking up its quarterly disbursements by 33% to $0.08 a share. AmerisourceBergen also initiated a $500 million share-repurchase program.

Automatic Data Processing (Nasdaq: ADP - News) is on the move, too. The payroll giant is now distributing $0.34-per-share payouts to its shareholders every three months. That's just $0.01 a share higher than its previous rate, but the Income Investor recommendation has come through with 35 consecutive years of padding its yield.

Finally, we have Prudential Financial (NYSE: PRU - News) giving its stockholders a bigger piece of the rock. The financial-services heavyweight's new annual distribution is $0.70 a share, a 21% improvement.

Some of these moves may not seem like much, but consider the companies going the other way. Tesoro (NYSE: TSO - News) was among several companies slashing their dividends last week.

Subscribers to Income Investor appreciate the companies that send more and more money to their investors. The newsletter service recommends companies that are committed to growing their distributions with market-thumping results.

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