Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) Raised to Strong Buy at S&P Equity Research (late-Tuesday).
Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
El Paso Corp. (NYSE: EP) Maintained positive and raised target to $26 at Susquehanna.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) Raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) Cut to Hold at Auriga.
Knight Transportation Inc. (NYSE: KNX) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.
Lender Processing Services (NYSE: LPS) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Mobile Telesystems OJSC (NYSE: MBT) Cut to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Vimpel-Communications (NYSE: VIP) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Virgin Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: VMED) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (NYSE: WYN) Maintained Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

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JON C. OGG

ACE Limited (NYSE: ACE) saits its approved shareholder matters included a 6.5% increase to its quarterly dividend to $1.32 annually ($0.33 per quarter) from $1.24.  This gave the insurer and reinsurer a yield of 2.5% at the time.

Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG) approved a 9.5% increase in the company’s regular quarterly cash dividend, from $0.21 to $0.23 per common share.  The current yield is 1.89% on the dividend.

The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) declared a quarterly dividend of $0.55 cents per share, which is up a nickel or by 10%.  The household and consumer products company now has an implied dividend yield of 3.4%.

Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. (NYSE: DPS) is one we already predicted this year that would hike the payout.  It did, and handsomely.  The quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share is up 67% and “follows the company’s attainment of its target capital structure.”  The new implied dividend yield will be 2.6%.

Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO) looks like a 200% boost to the payout as the new dividend is $0.75 versus $0.25 a quarter ago.  The problem is that the payouts here from the company are never set at a consistent rate and they have even been much higher in the past.  That being said, we are not using a dividend yield calculation here.  Still, this is the highest payout announced for at least six quarters.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) did not yet hike its dividend, although Immelt laid out an even more detailed time line and we gave our prediction for what that payout would be.

Knight Transportation, Inc. (NYSE: KNX) declared a 20% increase of the company’s quarterly cash dividend to $0.06 per share of common stock from $0.05 per share.  The new dividend yield is close to 1.2%.

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) declared a quarterly dividend of $0.47 per common share, a 9.3% from the previous $0.43 per share payout and is the seventh consecutive annual increase.  The implied dividend yield is now over 3.0%.

Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY) announced that its board declared a regular quarterly cash dividend and approved a 20% increase from $0.10 per share to $0.12 each quarter per share.  The grocery chain now yields 2.0%.

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) lifted it dividend after already having raised it before.  The high-end jewelry retailer boosted its quarterly dividend by 25% to $0.25 from $0.20 per quarter.  The $1.00 dividend comes to almost 2.4% for a yield, still far south of what Buffett gets on his preferred shares.

Transatlantic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: TRH) raised its quarterly dividend by 5% to $0.21 per share, and that marks yet another consecutive year of dividend payout hikes by the reinsurer.  That left an implied dividend of 1.8%.

Unum Group (NYSE: UNM) announced this week an increase of 12.1% in dividend payouts to $0.0925 per common share, giving an implied dividend yield of 1.7%.  The company also announced a $500 million buyback plan.

Xcel Energy Inc. (NYSE: XEL) raised its quarterly dividend from $0.245 per share per quarter to a rate of $0.2525 per share per quarter.  The electric utility’s old annual payout of $0.98 will now be $1.01, and that in turn generates a dividend yield of about 4.75%.

The hikes keep coming, but this was a bad week for companies announcing good news.  Stay tuned for more dividend hike predictions… followed by more dividend hikes.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

• American Express (AXP) Started as Sell at Banc of America; Started as Sell at Citigroup.
• Axsys Technologies (AXYS) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
• BJ’s Wholesale (BJ) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
• Cavium Networks (CAVM) Cut to Market Weight at Thomas Weisel.
• Electronic Arts (ERTS) was downgraded at Citigroup, Banc of America, and piper Jaffray.
• Ericsson (ERIC) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
• FLIR Systems (FLIR) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
• FMC Tech (FTI) Cut to Sell at UBS.
• General Electric (GE) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
• Heartlan Express (HTLD) Cut to Sell at UBS.
• Knight Transportation (KNX) Cut to Sell at UBS.
• Nike (NKE) Cut to Neutral at Banc of America.
• Sina (SINA) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.

Jon C. Ogg
December 10, 2008

• Ann Taylor (ANN) Raised to Hold from Sell at Citigroup.
• China Sunergy (CSUN) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
• Verigy (VRGY) Raised to Hold at S&P.
• Cablevision (CVC) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
• Knight Transportation (KNX) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.
• Oshkosh (OSK) Cut to Sell at S&P.
• Werner Enterprises (WERN) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.

Jon C. Ogg
August 25, 2008

Jon C. Ogg
July 30, 2007

Jon C. Ogg
June 19, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.