Dividend Stocks for the Week

SAN FRANCISCO (TheStreet) -- According to Jim Cramer, the major benefit to owning a dividend-paying stock isn't the dividend payout. "The reason to be attracted to strong, increasing dividends," he said, "is that they limit your downside, and your downside is what you have to be thinking about."

At Stockpickr, hundreds of portfolios are dedicated to dividend-paying stocks (to find them, just enter "dividend" in the search box). For example, there's the High Beta Dividends portfolio, the Large-Cap Gold Stocks with Dividends portfolio and the Microcaps with Dividends portfolio. (To create your own portfolio, just sign up at Stockpickr.)

Dividend experts such as David Peltier, portfolio manager of the Dividend Stock Advisor, says investors should "focus on companies that are raising their dividends." With that in mind, every week Stockpickr reviews the recent dividend declarations and compiles a portfolio of dividend-increasers for the week.

To read more, visit Stockpickr.com.

-- Written by Fred Fuld in San Francisco.