Dividend payouts are on the upswing according to data from Standard & Poor’s.

S&P reported that there were 106 dividend increases in September from the approximately 7,000 publicly owned companies that report dividends to it. That represents a 32.5% rise from the 80 increases reported in September 2003, but closely tracks the 105 increases posted in September, on average, over the last decade. Extra dividends for the month totaled 22, up from the 20 seen in September 2003.

The data also show that there were three unfavorable dividend actions last month, a 62.5% decline from the number reported in September 2003. Two companies cut their payments and another one omitted its dividend. In September 2003, there were six decreases and two omissions.

For the third quarter of 2004, there were 391 dividend increases, a 6.5% decrease from 2003, but a 30.8% increase from the same period in 2002. For the first nine months of 2004, there were 1,286 dividend increases, up 6.6% from the same period in 2003, and up 22.9% from the first three quarters of 2002.

“The September dividend increase numbers are encouraging,” says Joseph Lisanti, editor at Standard & Poor’s. “Both July and August of this year saw fewer increases than in the same months of 2003,” he said. “The stronger dividend increase figures for the end of the quarter appear to confirm our view that the economy is improving after a short period of weaker growth.”