After the return of volatility in the markets, February turned out to be a fairly significant downer in terms of portfolio value for me. Thankfully though, I can always count on steady income from my dividends regardless of the market swings. From a dividend perspective, February was a great month. I raked in over $500 in dividends, and thanks to some awesome dividend raises and some new investments, I’m set up for even more dividends in the future.
Let’s take a look at the dividend income I collected in February.
Dividend Income
February’s dividend income total came in at $515.89… an outstanding 57.64% increase compared to Feb. 2017. This was a nice jump after a fairly tame (<7%) YoY growth number in January.
A total of 12 companies paid me a dividend this month. The largest amount came from Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI), with $110.72. The smallest amount came from new holding Texas Instruments (TXN), at $15.50.
The dividend amounts from Starbucks (SBUX) and Realty Income (O) mainly increased thanks to additional purchases over the past year.
Increased amounts for the other companies were a result of dividend increases and reinvested dividends over the past year.
This February saw plenty of new dividend payers, including CVS Health (CVS), Hormel (HRL), Air Products & Chemicals (APD), Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) and TXN.
Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) moved their dividend payment to March this year, so nothing to show from SWKS until next month.
Again notice a new column, introduced last month. In the “Add’l Fwd Inc” column, I show the amount of additional annual forward dividend income that resulted from reinvesting each of this month’s paid dividends. February saw an addition of $22.53 from this category. This was more than in January despite fewer dividends being received in February – strictly a result of companies with higher dividend yields receiving the dividend reinvestments this month. The reinvestment of the OHI dividend resulted in a hefty bump in forward dividend income, thanks to OHI’s ~10% yield.
You’ll notice no additional forward dividend income from TXN. The reason for this is because TXN was a recent purchase, and I neglected to instruct my brokerage to reinvest dividends prior to the dividend payment date. I’ve done that now, so future dividends from TXN will be reinvested.
Dividend Raises
Last month, dividend raises allowed me to increase my forward dividend income by over $100 for the first time ever. Amazingly, February was even better, as I crossed the $200 threshold.
One caveat… Early this month I realized that Visa (V) had actually declared their dividend increase in late January, as opposed to Feb. 1st as thought. Thus, technically, the Visa raise should have been recorded in January. However, since I’d already published my January dividend income post, I had to include it this month.
Anyway, February brought some stellar dividend raises by various companies in my Portfolio, most of which were unexpected. In total, I had 8 companies raise their dividend, and all were very impressive. The smallest raise was from V at about 7.7%. Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Union Pacific (UNP) came in a shade under 10%, while Quest Diagnostics (DGX) was just over 11%. Pepsico (PEP) delivered just north of 15%, and T. Rowe Price (TROW) astounded with nearly 23%. Finally, CTSH and Abbvie (ABBV) raised the roof with over 33% and 35%, respectively. Wow!
A couple of dividend raises I didn’t get… one was from SCANA (SCG), as I believe holding the dividend steady was part of their merger agreement with Dominion Energy (D). The other raise that never came was from HanesBrands (HBI).
These raises contributed a total of $239.74 to my annual forward dividend income! Yet again, a new record. Not only did I cross the $200 mark, I destroyed it!
I’d have to invest an unbelievable $9,046.79 at my portfolio’s average yield of 2.65% in order to equal the same boost to my annual forward dividend income that these dividend raises provide. Stunning!
Dividends Due To New Investment
I had four purchases in February. Early in the month, I added to existing positions O and Exxon Mobil (XOM). I then followed that up with two purchases due to put option assignments. These assignments were 100 shares of HBI, and 100 shares of Southern Company (SO). The new HBI shares added to an existing position, while the ones for SO were new.
These purchases resulted in the following additional forward dividend income: O – $84.10, XOM – $61.60, and HBI – $60.00, for a total of $205.70.
Despite the assignment of SO, I’m holding off on including SO in my dividend Portfolio for now. That’s why you don’t see the forward dividend income from this purchase included in the total above. Had I included SO and its dividend income, another $232 would have been added to the total. For the time being, I’m writing call options on the SO shares. I suspect that SO might make its way into the Portfolio should I still have the shares by the time of the first dividend I can collect in June.
Summary
Another good month to start off 2018. Dividend income increased by over 57% compared to last February – that’s some nice growth!
In addition, the forward dividend income total was again boosted by reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of new capital. I’ll be tracking this trio of income boosters each month this year, in the table below.
Again, dividend raises led the way this month, but I don’t expect that to continue next month unless there are more unexpected dividend raises announced.
With a strong February, I’m well on my way to reaching my goal of $8,700 in annual forward dividend income by year’s end. I need to average roughly $115.25 per month in new forward dividend income in order to reach my goal. With another $467.97 for February, I’m now almost half way to my goal for the year!
Any surprises for your portfolio in February? How about some unexpected dividend raises? Those have been quite frequent in 2018. Please share in the comments…
I have updated the Portfolio & Dividends pages in conjunction with this monthly update.
Hey ED,
over 500$ in dividend income is awesome! and a yoy increase of 57% shows what dividend growth investing is all about. I like the companies that paid you. Besides the ones i own (like O, MAIN, OHI) i like PG, SBUX and ABBV a lot. Reminds me to keep looking for entry spot in these companies.
My dividend total for February 2018 was a new all-time record. If you have the time you can check out my latest blog post:
https://dividendsolutions.wordpress.com/2018/03/01/dividend-income-feb-2018/
Keep it up!
DividendSolutions
I checked out your post, DS. That’s a record I’d take this month, or any other. Nice work.
I liked my progress this month, but suspect the capital investments and dividend increases will slow down in March. There are always lots of dividend payers in March, so reinvested dividends may take the lead as my largest contributor to my forward dividend income next month.
Nice recap ED. I think we are getting upside surprises with dividends increases this year. CLX, MO and INTC come to top of mind. Tom
Thanks, Tom. Those dividend increases really power the portfolio along when in comes to additional forward dividend income. I don’t own any of the 3 companies you mentioned (I did own INTC at one point), but they must have been outstanding raises for them to be at the forefront of your mind.
Hi ED. I always enjoy reading your updates, because of the metrics you track. You give me new insights, like the fact that your dividends increase three ways (new capital, reinvested dividends, and dividend raises).
Another example is the concept of how much new capital you would have to invest to generate the increased dividend income. I’m still getting my mind around that concept.
Keep up the good work!
Hi, DF. Yeah, I really enjoy the metrics. I certainly like looking at the numbers in various ways… so interesting to me. I’m curious to see how my forward dividend contributors end up the year so that I can compare their totals to what I had expected for 2018.
Looks like another solid month for you. We share two stocks TXN and XOM. With Scottrade I was never able to DRIP. Now with TD Ameritrade I can start DRIP. I am sure we share almost all the DG stocks through my ETFs. Seems like we can expect more volatility aka buying opportunists.
Thanks, DG. I started with actual DRiPs, and had several for a long time. In 2015, I moved them all over to my brokerage and started my dividend Portfolio. Being able to DRiP the holdings there was a key aspect for me. I’m glad you are now able to do the same with the transition to TD Ameritrade.
The volatility we saw in February seems more normal than what we saw in all of 2017. There will certainly be opportunities that come with the volatility. We just need to have some cash on hand to be able to pounce.
Nice recap. It’s great to see those increases – especially the unexpected ones! Abbvie, in particular, surprised me when I saw that announcement. Congrats on your progress. – Mike
I’m with you, Mike. I love to be pleasantly surprised by the unexpected dividend increases. Abbvie had a monster increase, catapulting me towards my 2018 goal. Heck, all my announced increases in February were outstanding. This month was probably an anomaly, but I’ll take while I can get it. Thanks for stopping in and commenting.
Amazing the impact of switching perspectives between portfolio balance and monthly income – when the dividends are what you want, the swings in portfolio are much less relevant! Love how much more rewarding it is to see your steady progress with the dividend increases too – great work. Unfortunately, total portfolio balance is my focus at the moment, and hence more ups and downs, but once it’s well established I’ll be much more Focused on those Fully Franked Dividends!
Hi, Frankie! I love the price gains when I can get them. However, when portfolio balance losses come my way, it’s nice to be able to see the dividend income holding steady (or even increasing). I agree, this perspective can make the balance losses seem a little less relevant. Glad you could stop by and comment. See you next time.
Congrats on the HUGE YoY increase ED. That’s a solid list of companies paying you dividends. I also like how you present the data. I got to figure out how to do that with excel (in terms of posting it on the blog). Can’t wait to see how March is for you.
Thanks, DP. If I’m not mistaken, I think I’m able to paste Excel snapshots into my posts thanks to a plugin called OnePress Image Elevator. Let me know if you are successful in getting it to work.
ED, great results and awesome to see all those dividend raises bumping up that forward income in a big way. Looks like 2018 will be a great year for you!
The dividend raises have been huge these first two months of 2018, TITM. My dividend goals for the year are looking good as a result.
ED, you are absolutely crushing it. $500 in divvie I come is just amazing. Very inspirational for us starters out there.
I’m happy with my start to the year, Mr. Robot. I’m not doing anything special, just investing to good companies and letting the compounding do its thing. The fact that you’ve already started on your journey it perhaps the most difficult part. Keep feeding your portfolio and it will grow!
Way to go over $500 in a single month is very impressive. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, Matthew. Two months down at $500+, and March should not present any problems with respect achieving the same level. If I can get by April, I might have a shot at being over $500 each month this year. That would be something!
Hi ED,
Congrats on yet another great month! As somebody already mentioned above, your monthly updates are really interesting and you are playing the game right! I hope my portfolio will be able to work for me similarly one day.
Talking about dividend increases, I was pleasantly surprised by CSCO this month and their dividend increase of 14%
-BI
Thanks so much, BI. I like to hear that the presentation of all the data/numbers is resonating with you.
I’m sure your portfolio will deliver everything you hope for as long as you continue to help it grow. Between your contributions and the power of compounding, I’m confident that you’ll see great results.
You’ll have to do most of the work in the beginning, but compounding will dominate eventually. Take care.
Looks like you had an awesome month, congrats and keep up the good work! $500 a month is a hell of a lot, I think I read somewhere that the majority of the population would be in serious trouble if a sudden $500 expense were to pop up, and you’re seeing that as passive income each month.
Welcome, MrSLM. Yes, it was a good month, and I was very happy to cross the $500 mark. Hopefully, I can stay over this level every month moving forward. It will take some additional work, though.
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment… hope to see you again!
Nice Blog to start following ,like the way you presented the data.$500 in the month of feb is huge and i think march will be bigger .We have quite a few common stocks.
Thanks, desidividend. I’m glad you liked it. Always good to hear positive feedback.
Yes, I expect March to deliver great results, too. I plan to continue a creep towards my first 4-digit dividend month.
I’ll be sure to stop by and check out the stocks we have in common… always good to see how other portfolios are constructed.
Nice 500.00 this month. Plus 200.00 in dividend raises I’m hoping to get 200.00 for the year. Last year I had around 150.00 in dividend increases. I’ve had 1 company that was scheduled to raise but didn’t but they made an Australian purchase lol HBI. Hopefully they raise it soon. Then it is looking like GIS is not raising at expected. But they made a purchase also. But I did get Altria unexpected raise. Gonna make another buy of Altria soon. Keep it up
Hey, Doug. Loved the dividend raises thus far in 2018… however, things have cooled off since mid-February. On the other hand, I’ve got HBI, OHI and CVS holding their dividend steady, so that’s a downer. Overall, more good than bad though. Thanks for your comment!
Awesome Job ED! I really like the list of companies you have paying you this month. We have quite a few names in common. Also, I’m sure you are loving the recent ABBV dividend increase as much as I am! Congrats on another successful month!
You know it, MH! I loved the recent ABBV dividend increase. Price appreciation and a dividend increase… what’s not to like. Hopefully our other companies follow ABBV’s lead. Thanks for stopping in and commenting.
Just great results ED. I freaking love it! Not only did you crush it with dividends received, but you received EIGHT dividend increases. Congrats on yet another strong month my friend.
Bert
Thanks, Bert! Yes, I agree it was a strong month. The dividend increases have been so awesome to begin 2018. In January, I established a new personal best for “additional forward dividend income due to dividend raises”, only to nearly double it in February…. incredible! I’m also really happy about eclipsing $500 in dividends each of the 1st two months of the year. I’m off to a great start, and I hope to carry the momentum throughout the rest of the year.
Now that was a serious jump year over year. Keep up that good work. Nice to see a handful of common names paying us last month. Solid all around.
Good to hear from you, DivHut. I made several purchases after February 2017 that paid off for me this February… as it just so happened, several new companies paying in the 2nd month of the quarter.
This may end up being the month with my biggest YoY growth in 2018… we’ll see. That’s OK though if I can’t top it. If I can consistently stay in the double digit growth category then I’ll be more than happy.
Nice month! I like that ABBV dividend raise too. Can’t beat a 50% YoY growth rate and getting over $500 in a single month. I see a few new positions paying you as well that didn’t last year. I share HRL with you. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, Daze. Yes, a handful of new companies I accumulated over the past year that pay out in the 2nd month of each quarter. That was the primary reason for the big YoY growth this month.
I’m certainly happy to have reached $500 in dividends this month… that’s now 3 months in a row over $500 going back to last December. It should be 4 in a row after March…. the question will be if the streak ends in April.
Awesome update! We included you in the latest Dividend Blogger Report here: http://www.fourpillarfreedom.com/blogger-dividend-report-february-2018/
Keep up the good work 🙂
Hey Zach, it looks nice! I love to see all the data presented in so many ways, and of course it was nice to see where I landed within the community. Thanks for the inclusion!