This week's dividend scan surfaced five companies raising payouts into a market that's been anything but decisive. Pulled directly from the FMP's Dividends Calendar API, the signals cut across utilities, defense, industrials, transport, and energy—an unusual mix that suggests something more deliberate than routine annual adjustments. These weren't high-yield grabs or cosmetic bumps; they were policy decisions made amid uneven growth signals and ongoing sector rotation.

In this note, we break down what those increases look like in context and why they matter now. We'll also walk through how the Dividends Calendar API was used to detect these changes as they hit the tape, before narrative framing or consensus summaries flatten the signal—and how the same workflow can be rerun systematically to track payout intent as a live data input rather than a backward-looking metric.

Five Dividend Hikes Worth Noting This Week

NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG)

NRG Energy declared a quarterly dividend of $0.475 per share, or $1.90 annualized, representing an 8% increase from the prior $0.4375 payout. The dividend is payable February 17, 2026, to holders of record on February 2, with an ex-dividend date of January 30. At current levels, the annualized yield stands at 1.18%.

The size of the increase matters more than the yield. NRG has spent the past several years reshaping its portfolio—reducing commodity exposure, emphasizing retail power, and leaning into capital discipline after a period of elevated volatility in energy markets. An 8% dividend step-up signals confidence that cash flows are not only stabilizing, but sufficiently visible to support a higher baseline return of capital. In the current environment, where power markets are balancing load growth, grid investment, and pricing normalization, this reads as a statement about durability rather than opportunism.

To deepen the signal, tracking free cash flow trends, retail margin disclosures, and debt reduction metrics from the cash flow statement would help clarify how much flexibility NRG retains as power demand and regulatory dynamics evolve. Dividend growth here appears less about yield appeal and more about reinforcing a post-restructuring capital framework.

L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX)

L3Harris declared a quarterly dividend of $1.25 per share, or $5.00 annualized, a 4.2% increase from the prior $1.20. The dividend will be paid March 20, 2026, to shareholders of record on March 6, with an ex-dividend date of March 5. The resulting yield is approximately 1.35%.

In isolation, a mid-single-digit dividend increase might look routine. In context, it aligns with a broader capital signal from the company. Earlier this month, L3Harris announced plans for a $1 billion Department of Defense investment into its Missile Solutions business via a convertible preferred security, designed to convert into common equity upon a planned IPO in the second half of 2026. The dividend hike, coming alongside that transaction, suggests management is comfortable balancing shareholder returns with structural repositioning inside the portfolio.

The more relevant lens here is funding confidence. Defense contractors are operating in an environment of strong backlog visibility but increasing scrutiny around program execution and margins. Monitoring segment-level operating income, order backlog, and capital allocation disclosures—alongside updates tied to the Missile Solutions transaction—would help assess how dividend growth fits within L3Harris' longer-term capital stack and program mix.

Acuity Brands (NYSE: AYI)

Acuity Brands announced a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, or $0.80 annualized, marking a 17.6% increase from the previous $0.17 payout. The dividend is payable February 13, 2026, to shareholders of record on February 2, with an ex-dividend date of January 30. Despite the large percentage increase, the yield remains modest at 0.23%.

The signal here is not income generation—it's intent. Acuity's dividend base has historically been conservative, so a near-18% increase stands out as a recalibration rather than a cosmetic adjustment. The company sits at the intersection of commercial construction cycles, building automation, and energy efficiency investment. A higher dividend suggests management views recent cash generation as resilient enough to support a higher recurring return, even as end markets remain uneven.

To contextualize the move, investors would benefit from watching segment revenue trends, orders tied to smart building solutions, and operating margin progression from the income statement. The dividend change looks less like a yield play and more like a signal that internal return thresholds are being met more consistently across cycles.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ: JBHT)

J.B. Hunt raised its quarterly dividend to $0.45 per share, or $1.80 annualized, a 2.3% increase from $0.44. The dividend will be paid February 20, 2026, to shareholders of record on February 6, with an ex-dividend date of February 5. The annual yield is 0.87%.

The increase itself is incremental, but the timing is notable. The transportation sector has been navigating freight volume normalization, pricing pressure, and shifting customer behavior following a multi-year demand surge. Against that backdrop, even a modest dividend increase suggests management sees earnings variability as manageable rather than destabilizing. It reinforces J.B. Hunt's long-standing approach of steady, measured capital returns rather than aggressive adjustments tied to cycle peaks.

This dividend move is best evaluated alongside recent earnings results, particularly intermodal volumes, contract versus spot pricing trends, and operating ratio movements. Watching these data points helps determine whether the dividend reflects confidence in cost control and network efficiency rather than a short-term view on freight demand.

ONEOK (NYSE: OKE)

ONEOK declared a quarterly dividend of $1.07 per share, or $4.28 annualized, representing a 3.9% increase from $1.03. The dividend is payable February 13, 2026, to holders of record on February 2, with an ex-dividend date of January 30. At current prices, the yield stands at 5.33%, the highest among the group.

In contrast to the other names on this list, ONEOK's dividend remains a central part of the equity story. The increase reinforces management's confidence in fee-based cash flows from its midstream assets, even as commodity price volatility and capital spending discipline remain front-of-mind across the energy complex. A sub-4% increase may appear restrained, but in a high-yield context it reflects an emphasis on sustainability over acceleration.

To assess the durability of this signal, investors should focus on distributable cash flow coverage, leverage ratios, and project-level capital spending commitments. The dividend adjustment fits a pattern of incremental growth supported by infrastructure-backed cash flows rather than a reach for yield expansion, keeping the emphasis on balance-sheet alignment and payout coverage.

Interpreting the Pattern: What These Dividend Decisions Reveal in Aggregate

Taken together, these five dividend increases don't point to a single macro call—but they do trace a shared posture. Across power generation, defense, industrials, transport, and midstream energy, management teams are opting for measured affirmation rather than restraint. The increases cluster in the low- to mid-single digits, with one deliberate outlier, suggesting boards are comfortable lifting the baseline on shareholder returns without projecting excess confidence. In a backdrop defined by uneven demand signals, higher-for-longer rates, and selective sector rotation, that pattern reads as balance-sheet conviction rather than cyclical exuberance.

What's equally instructive is where these decisions are not coming from. None of these companies are leaning on valuation expansion, aggressive buybacks, or yield maximization to carry the equity narrative. Instead, the dividend actions align with businesses that have reasonable visibility into forward cash generation—through contracted infrastructure, backlog-supported revenue, or operating models that have recently stabilized. The signal is quieter, but arguably more durable: capital is being committed incrementally, with optionality preserved.

From an analytical standpoint, this is where dividend events become more useful once they're treated as data rather than headlines. Declarations captured directly at the point of release—such as those surfaced through Financial Modeling Prep—gain meaning when paired with historical payout behavior, contemporaneous income statement trends, and underlying cash flow coverage. Adding analyst estimate revisions or price target dispersion on top of those fundamentals helps frame whether a dividend increase is reinforcing consensus confidence or subtly diverging from it.

The aggregate takeaway isn't that dividends have suddenly become leading indicators again. It's that, in this slice of the market, they're being used deliberately: not to attract capital, but to mark internal thresholds that management teams appear comfortable committing to. For analysts, the value lies in treating these announcements less as yield events and more as inputs—signals that, when layered across datasets, help map where corporate conviction is quietly firming and where caution still dominates.

Turning Dividend Declarations Into a Repeatable Signal with FMP Data

If the goal is to treat dividend changes as live signals rather than retrospective commentary, the process has to start at the point of declaration. Pulling directly from the Financial Modeling Prep Dividends Calendar API keeps the workflow anchored to primary events—what companies actually announced, when they announced it—before interpretation or aggregation alters the signal. That makes the process easy to rerun on a fixed schedule and consistent across time.

Before running the process, ensure the API key is active.

The Dividends Calendar endpoint serves as the entry point, returning newly declared dividends across the market in a structured format that includes amounts, dates, yields, and payment frequency. This raw feed becomes the working universe for the analysis.

Endpoint:

https://financialmodelingprep.com/stable/dividends-calendar?apikey=YOUR_API_KEY

Sample Response:

[

{

"symbol": "1D0.SI",

"date": "2025-02-04",

"recordDate": "",

"paymentDate": "",

"declarationDate": "",

"adjDividend": 0.01,

"dividend": 0.01,

"yield": 6.25,

"frequency": "Semi-Annual"

}

]

Step 1: Capture Recent Declarations

Start by querying the Dividends Calendar over a short, controlled time frame—typically the most recent 10 to 14 days. This window is long enough to capture new declarations while limiting contamination from older entries that sometimes reappear due to reporting delays. The output from this step forms the working universe for the rest of the analysis.

Step 2: Stack It Against the Prior Dividend

Next, for every ticker surfaced in the initial pull, retrieve the previous dividend using the historical dividend endpoint. This historical anchor is critical. Without it, unchanged recurring payments and true increases are indistinguishable. The comparison introduces context and allows the workflow to focus on intent rather than repetition.

Step 3: Filter for Material Moves

With both the new and prior dividend values in hand, calculate the percentage change using

(New Dividend − Old Dividend) ÷ Old Dividend × 100.

Apply your screening criteria to narrow the list. A common approach is to flag increases of 5% or more paired with an annual yield of at least 2%, which helps remove token raises while preserving economically relevant moves. Thresholds can be tuned depending on whether the focus is income generation, payout discipline, or signal detection.

Example Workflow: Detecting 5%+ Dividend Hikes

1. Pull a fresh 14-day window from the Dividends Calendar API.
2. For each ticker, fetch its prior payout via the historical dividend endpoint.
3. Compute the percentage change using the formula above.
4. Keep only companies posting 5%+ increases and yielding 2% or more.

Expanding Your Dividend Tracking Setup

For simple dividend surveillance—tracking when payouts are declared or adjusted—a lightweight setup is usually enough. Access at the Basic or Starter tier supports an event-driven workflow that captures announcements as they're released and feeds cleanly into a weekly review, alert, or internal screen. At this stage, the priority is coverage and timing: seeing changes early, with minimal overhead, and without layering in interpretation that isn't yet required.

The requirements shift once dividends move from detection into evaluation. Premium-level access becomes more relevant when each new declaration needs to be weighed against history rather than viewed in isolation. With multiple years of payout data available, increases can be compared to prior cycles, earnings variability, and sector norms. That historical framing helps separate routine adjustments from decisions that stand out relative to a company's own behavior.

Scaling Dividend Monitoring Beyond the Individual Desk

The shift happens quietly. What begins as a personal workflow—built to track dividend changes more efficiently—starts showing up in team discussions, portfolio reviews, and internal notes. At that point, the question is no longer whether the signal is useful, but whether everyone is working from the same version of it. Consistency becomes as important as insight.

In practice, this is where individual analysts often turn into internal champions of standardization. Defining how dividend events are sourced, how often data refreshes, and which assumptions sit upstream of the output reduces friction across teams. Shared dashboards become easier to maintain, reconciliations fade into the background, and conversations move faster because the underlying data logic is aligned. The workflow stops fragmenting as it spreads.

Institutional use also raises practical requirements that don't matter at the desk level—audit trails, data lineage, access controls, and refresh discipline. When a dividend signal feeds published research or investment decisions, those guardrails are no longer optional. This is typically the point where teams look to formalize the setup within a governed environment, such as the FMP Enterprise Plan, not as an upgrade for scale alone, but as a way to preserve what made the original workflow effective while making it reliable across the organization. Done well, the transition turns a useful desk tool into durable research infrastructure without diluting the signal that made it valuable in the first place.

Dividends as a Quiet Pulse on Corporate Confidence

Dividend changes rarely move markets on their own, but taken together they offer a useful read on how management teams are assessing their own footing. When tracked directly at the point of declaration through the FMP's Dividends Calendar API, those decisions become less about yield and more about internal thresholds—what companies are willing to commit, and when. In that sense, dividends act as a low-noise signal: not predictive, but revealing, especially when viewed consistently over time.

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Disclosure: Signals Desk content is provided for informational and analytical purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or trade recommendations. The analysis reflects interpretation of market data and publicly disclosed or third-party information, including data accessed via Financial Modeling Prep APIs, at the time of publication. Signals discussed are probabilistic, can be wrong, and may change as market conditions and consensus data evolve. This content should be considered alongside broader research, individual objectives, and risk assessment.