Jim Trippon, CPA

Brinker International (NYSE: EAT), the operator of the Chili's, On The Border and Maggiano's restaurants, served up a nice dividend hike on Friday by saying it would boost its quarterly dividend by 27% to 14 cents a share from 11 cents. The new dividend is payable on July 11th to shareholders of record on June 17th.

Brinker's better-than-expected outlook is certainly one reason behind increase. For the fiscal third quarter, Brinker expects to earn 41 cents to 44 cents a share while analysts are expecting a profit of 40 cents a share.

The company also offered a better outlook for its top line by saying it expects sales at restaurants open at least one year to fall between 1% and 2%. That's better than previous estimates that called for a decline of 2% to 4%.

Brinker had more good news for shareholders by adding $250 million to a currently existing share repurchase plan that has $60 million remaining on it.

When factoring in the new dividend, Brinker shares would yield about 2.8% based on Friday's closing price of $19.59.