As the market continues to falter into the close of the first quarter, many investors are turning to dividend stocks in order to avoid the selloffs that have plagued growth stocks since late 2025.
But for a handful of dividend payers, the traditionally expected slow-and-steady growth is not what they have been providing to investors. Rather, some companies offering strong yields have seen stellar performances over the past year. And now, they are rewarding shareholders with eye-catching increases to their dividends.
That is precisely the case for three key stocks operating in some of the market's hottest industries, including one of the world’s biggest names in the semiconductor industry, a precious metals giant, and a rising Israeli star in the aerospace and defense sector.
Let’s break down the important dividend news coming from these three companies.
AMAT Announces Strong Dividend Increase After +100% Run
Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT), an integral player within the semiconductor ecosystem, ranks among the world’s top three most valuable stocks in the wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) industry. The various machines that the firm provides are critical for manufacturing advanced semiconductors.
Applied Materials has gone on an incredibly strong run over the last 52 weeks, delivering a total return that exceeds 140%. This hasn’t come due to explosive post-earnings gains, although shares did get a significant 8% lift after the company beat estimates in its last quarter. This triple-digit upside move came despite revenues declining 2% year over year.
Rather, shares have been appreciating due to the constrained manufacturing capacity surrounding processor and memory chips. In response, investors are rightfully anticipating that Applied Materials will see strong long-term demand as its customers require more equipment to increase capacity. Notably, the firm expects its semiconductor equipment segment revenue to rise by more than 20% in 2026, which would mark the segment’s fastest growth rate since 2021.
To go along with its stellar performance of late, Applied Materials just announced a significant 15% increase to its quarterly dividend. Its payment will move up to 53 cents per share, with its next dividend payable on June 11 to shareholders of record on March 21.
Precious Metals Streamer Wheaton Boosts Dividend 18%
Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE: WPM) has also been a winning stock, delivering a total return of around 50% over the past 52 weeks. As its name suggests, the company is a big player in the precious metals industry. However, Wheaton is not a gold or silver miner, but rather a precious metals streaming company.
Instead of mining, streaming companies provide upfront capital to both senior and junior miners that is used for construction and exploration of precious metal mines, and the subsequent extraction of those metals. In exchange, streamers receive the right to purchase a percentage of the metal that a mine produces, often at an 80% or higher discount to the spot price. Streamers then have the option of selling the metal and realizing the spread between their purchase price and the spot price. Thus, streamers provide an interesting alternative within precious metals investing outside of physical bullion or miners.
In 2025, 62% of Wheaton’s revenue came from gold streaming, 39% came from silver streaming, and the rest came from other metals. As these two metals have seen their prices soar over the past year, Wheaton has done well. In turn, the firm just announced a hefty 18% dividend increase, moving its quarterly payment up to 19.5 cents per share.
This increase is several times larger than the 6% dividend boost the company announced this time last year. The precious metal streamer will pay its next dividend on April 10 to shareholders of record on March 31.
ESLT Lifts Dividend Over 30% While Sitting on +$25B Backlog
Elbit Systems (NASDAQ: ESLT) has been a huge beneficiary of the uptick in global defense spending, seeing its share price deliver a total return of around 120% over the last 52 weeks. The company recorded strong but not astonishingly high revenue growth of 16% in 2025.
However, one of the biggest reasons for the huge move in this stock is the company’s massive backlog. At the end of 2025, that figure stood at approximately $28 billion. For reference, that is around 3.5 times higher than the $7.9 billion in full-year revenue the firm generated in 2025. This provides substantial sales visibility for years to come.
Notably, Elbit is generating significant revenue across geographic regions. In 2025, Europe accounted for 27% of sales, North America accounted for 21%, Asia Pacific accounted for 16%, and Israel accounted for 32%. The firm notes that 72% of its backlog comes from countries other than Israel, which should lead to increased diversification over time. Elbit identified Europe as a meaningful growth driver going forward, likely due to those countries working to reach long-term NATO spending targets.
Alongside its latest earnings report—which included its eighth consecutive quarterly earnings beat—Elbit announced a whopping 33% increase to its quarterly dividend. This pushes its distribution up to $1 per share. The firm will pay its next dividend on April 27 to shareholders of record on April 13.
Despite Big Boosts, Yields for AMAT, WPM, and ESLT Are Playing Catch-Up
These names all have relatively low yields for their respective industries, and all three are clearly working to support their dividend returns through sizable increases. When shares post drastic gains, it is often hard for yields to keep up.
Take Elbit as an example. Despite increasing its payout significantly, its yield for new investors today is far lower than the 1% range it stood at in May of 2024. This comes as the stock has posted a meteoric +350% share price gain over that period.
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The article "Income Boosters: 3 Stocks Raising Their Dividends by 15% to 33%" first appeared on MarketBeat.
