Also during the first quarter, companies like Wal-Mart ( WMT ), Coca-Cola ( KO ), General Dynamics ( GD ), Kimberley Clark ( KMB ) and Qualcomm ( QCOM ) all hiked their quarterly dividend payouts by 10% or more -- to the delight of investors. "The first quarter represents a rebirth of dividends in the U.S. domestic market and speaks to the higher confidence that board of directors are placing in both the economic recovery and their future earnings ability," said Silverblatt. S&P forecasts that companies will continue to slowly increase dividends based on the pace of economic expansion and the stability of the jobs market. But the company said it may take until 2013 until dividends return to the lofty levels reached in the first quarter of 2007, when 740 companies raised their dividends and only 19 companies decreased them.