Dominion Energy (D) will raise its quarterly dividend by 7.9 percent to $0.755 per share in the first quarter of 2017. Last year the utility holding company hiked its dividend from 64.75 cents to 70 cents per share quarterly.

The next dividend is payable on March 20, 2017, to shareholders of record at the close of business March 3, 2017. This is the 356th consecutive dividend that Dominion or its predecessor company has paid holders of common stock.

Dominion Resources, Inc. is a diversified utility holding company. Dominion produces and sells electric energy in Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. The company operates one of the nation's largest natural gas storage systems with 1 trillion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves more than 6 million utility and retail energy customers.