The S&P 500's dividend stocks provided shareholders with an average payout boost of more than 8% in 2019. However, a number of outstanding companies announced far more substantial dividend increases - 20%, 30% or more. In a few cases, companies more than doubled their payouts overnight.

Companies often authorize significant upgrades in their regular dividends to attract new investors or stand out from industry competitors. While one-time influxes of cash will often go toward buybacks or one-time special dividends, firms that believe they can maintain heightened levels of profitability will return some of that money through larger regular payouts.

You'll notice that many of the past year's largest dividend increases came from the banking industry. That's in part because some large banks that were sitting on stockpiles of cash received permission from government regulators to distribute their excess capital to investors. Another major impetus for dividend growth was tax reform, which bumped up after-tax profits for many American companies, including banks.

Here, we look at 30 companies that stood out over the past year because of their outsize dividend increases. Each dividend growth stock listed here improved its regular payout by at least 20% in 2019, though in numerous cases, the dividend improved by considerably more. Let's take a look.

Bank of America

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Bank of America (BAC, $34.71) is America's second largest money-center bank by market capitalization, behind only $426 billion JPMorgan Chase (JPM). BofA is tops, however, in market share of consumer deposits, and it also claims to be the country's leading digital bank.

Thanks to ready access to low-cost funding, Bank of America has been able to boost its earnings assets by double digits over the past few years while using less regulatory capital.

The bank finished 2019 with a decent fourth quarter in which net income grew about 6% to 70 cents per share. It closed out the year with assets totaling $2.43 trillion and deposits of $1.43 trillion.

Bank of America's most recent dividend hike was announced in July" a 20% improvement to a new quarterly rate of 18 cents per share. The cash distribution has exploded over the past five years by 260%, but it sprang from a lowly position. BofA's dividend shrank from 64 cents in 2008 to a penny in 2009, and the company only restarted its dividend growth in 2014, when it jumped to 5 cents per share.

A meager payout ratio of 24% (that is, 24% of BofA's profits go toward paying the dividend) leaves a wide margin of safety and plenty of room for future dividend growth.

First Bancorp

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First Bancorp (FBNC, $38.39) is the fourth largest bank headquartered in North Carolina. Founded in 1935, this community bank has $6.1 billion in assets and approximately 100 branch locations across both Carolinas.

The bank plans to expand its footprint in North Carolina's most populous markets, which include Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Raleigh and Charlotte, while upgrading its technology. Last year, First Bancorp launched new bill pay systems, mortgage-driven loan apps and call centers. In 2020, the bank plans to introduce new credit card lending and retail banking platforms.

Reflecting the strength of its Carolina metro markets, First Bancorp has generated roughly 34% annual earnings growth over the past half-decade, and it has consistently beaten analyst consensus EPS estimates every quarter since 2015.

First Bancorp announced two dividend hikes in 2019 - though only one, a 20% increase to 12 cents per share, took effect last year. The second announcement, made at the end of December, was a much more significant enhancement to 18 cents per share, or a 50% hike. That surely will rank among 2020's largest dividend increases. Like BofA, a meager payout ratio (23%) gives the company ample room to keep hiking its payouts.

Huntington Ingalls Industries

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Military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (, $277.81) was one