Oil Stocks Are Delivering a Gusher of Dividend Growth These Days

The oil sector has developed a reputation over the past few years as the place where investor capital goes to die. That's largely the result of oil companies focusing so much of their attention on growing production as fast as possible in previous years that they have incinerated billions of dollars on drilling wells with questionable economics. This approach burned investors, which caused many to abandon the sector.

Oil companies, however, have since started getting their act together and are now focused on turning crude oil into cash by driving down costs and drilling wells that earn high returns on investment. Because of that, they're generating an increasing amount of free cash flow, which they're sending back to shareholders via share repurchases and dividends. That was abundantly clear this week when oil companies unveiled a gusher of dividend increases as they try to draw investors back to the sector.

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