Growing revenue is one objective sign that your investment candidates are improving their economic performance even in the face of a tough market -- a difficult hurdle to clear. More recently, insisting on growing revenue in addition to growing payouts would have helped investors to avoid disappointments such as Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), which raised its dividend in 2007 amid declining revenue and has since had to take a massive cut, all the way down to $0.01 a share, in accordance with its bailout terms.