The notion of companies returning more and more to their shareholders through various types of dividend-related events is always something that has intrigued me. With that said, I wanted to highlight one particular company that has recently announced a 20% increase in its regular quarterly payout.

TerraForm Power (TERP) – On December 22, TerraForm Power, which now possesses a forward yield of 2.96% (based on the company’s closing price of $30.41/share on 12/29/2014) ($1.08/share annualized), announced a 20% or $0.045/share increase, from its prior payout of $0.225/share, for the upcoming quarter.

Headquartered in Beltsville, Maryland, TerraForm Power owns and operates solar generation assets serving utility, commercial, and residential customers. The company's portfolio consists solar projects located in the United States and its unincorporated territories, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Chile with total nameplate capacity of 523.8 megawatts.

Based on its most recent closing price of $30.41/share, TerraForm Power now possesses a market capitalization of $3.07 billion and a forward yield of 2.96% ($1.08). Its trend behavior, although positive in both the near-term and the long-term (given the fact shares are trading 2.23% above their 20-DSMA, 5.79% above their 50-DSMA, and 3.09% above their 200-DSMA), should get a boost from the recent announcement regarding the creation of SunEdison’s (SUNE) $175 million dollar fund that is aimed at developing numerous solar projects over the next two years.

According to Ryan Bennett, vice president of project finance for North America at SunEdison, "This is one of the largest funds of its kind and it puts SunEdison and Terraform Power in an ideal position to rapidly grow and expand the solar energy market, all while offering excellent pricing and financing to our customers”. As per the terms of the deal, TerraForm will use $100 million to purchase up to 60MW of solar projects for SunEdison to construct over the next 24 months.

Conclusion

For those of you who may be considering a position in TerraForm Power, I strongly recommend keeping a close eye on both the company's dividend and project development behavior over the next 12-24 months as each of these catalysts should directly impact the long-term value of the company’s shares.