Time to tally up some dividends! Should I expect a big total given that it’s a quarter-ending month? I think I should!
I’ve got good numbers to share with you. No records this month, but still rather exciting.
The annual totals are getting very close to surpassing last year’s totals, too, as my Portfolio continues to grow at a nice clip.
Let’s wrap up the 3rd quarter, and get ready to head on to the 4th.
Here’s what transpired with regard to dividends in September…
Dividend Income
Oh yeah! Another 4-digit month, just barely. September’s dividend income came in at $1,003.03. This is just the 2nd time I’ve reached the $1K level for a single month. The first time was this past June.
This dividend total resulted in a terrific 24.74% YoY increase compared to the $804.08 from September 2017.
A total of 17 companies paid me a dividend this month. The largest amount came from Qualcomm (QCOM), delivering almost $120. QCOM has also had an impressive run up in price since their last quarterly dividend payment. The smallest amount came from Visa (V) at just over $17. V pays a small dividend but makes up for it with ample price appreciation.
The dividend amounts from Pepsico (PEP), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Blackrock (BLK) and Realty Income (O) mainly increased, or were significantly helped, 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. Check out the increased payouts from QCOM, T. Rowe Price (TROW), Aflac (AFL), Union Pacific (UNP) and V. Those are some nice organic growth numbers.
Only one new dividend payer arrived this September compared to last, and that was HanesBrands (HBI). HBI has been up and down, and up and down again for me over the course of the year since I initiated a position. Collecting the dividend helps while I wait for company to get headed in the right direction.
September also saw one dividend source leave my Portfolio, and that was W.W. Grainger (GWW). I sold GWW in favor of Fastenal (FAST) nearly a year ago. Thus, GWW will disappear from the dividend table by next quarter.
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. September saw an addition of $30.32 from this category. This total was down from the previous quarter-ending month due to rising stock prices – a fair trade off I’d say. 🙂
Dividend Raises
September was a tad underwhelming with regard to dividend raises when compared to previous months this year. However, any extra income is always welcome.
I had 3 Portfolio companies raise their dividend, resulting in two small raises and one large one.
Realty Income (O) was the first to announce a raise, providing a 0.23% increase. This is O’s 4th raise of the year, bringing the total raise for 2018 to just over 4%. One more small raise is expected in December.
Just one day later another REIT delivered a dividend raise. This time it was W.P. Carey (WPC), delivering a 0.49% raise. WPC is currently delivering quarterly dividend raises, and this current increase puts WPC on pace for a 2% raise for the year. I have to say I’d like to see an uptick in the dividend growth from WPC, as this will be the 3rd year in a row with less than 3% growth.
The best dividend raise came last, and about 1 month early. Texas Instruments (TXN) announced over a 24% raise, keeping up its strong dividend growth over the past decade plus.
These raises contributed $17.24 to my annual forward dividend income.
I’d have to invest $660.54 at my portfolio’s average yield of 2.61% in order to equal the same boost to my annual forward dividend income that these dividend raises provided.
Looking forward, I’m projecting that October will bring several dividend raises for me. I expect to see raises from Crown Castle International (CCI), Bank OZK (OZK), RPM International (RPM) and VF Corp (VFC). I also hope to see raises from Abbvie (ABBV), Aflac (AFL) and Visa (V), but these three are less certain since they already provided a dividend raise earlier this year. One company I’m fairly certain won’t be providing a dividend raise is Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI). Recent history had OHI providing raises each quarter, but the company hasn’t done so for either of the past two quarters while it dealt with some tenant issues.
Dividends Due To New Investment
I did not make any purchases or sales in September, so there’s not much to report here. A combination of fewer funds to invest and no screaming buys led to this outcome.
Unfortunately, this means I had a total of $0.00 in dividends due to new investment in September.
Summary
Another 4-digit dividend total was the highlight for September. Dividends rolled in from 17 companies, allowing me to just cross the $1K mark.
The YoY dividend growth continued to impress in September at nearly 25%. This has probably been close to the monthly average in 2018.
Oh, and I stayed above the $500 mark for dividend income for a 10th consecutive month… don’t want to forget that!
My forward dividend income totals are boosted by the combination of reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of new capital. I continue to track this triple whammy of income boosters each month this year, in the table below.
‘Dividend Raises’ continue to be the largest contributor to my increasing forward dividend income in 2018. September brought 3 dividend raises, adding over $17 to this month’s forward dividend income, and increasing the 2018 total from raises to nearly $717. I’m hoping October and November show up big with regard to raises, as I’d like to see dividend raises increase my forward dividend income by $1K for 2018. Next month should give me a good idea if that annual total can happen or not.
‘Reinvested Dividends’ led the pack this month (first time all year), adding over $30 to my forward dividend income – my 2nd best total due to reinvestment this year.
Thanks to no purchases in September, I laid an egg for additional forward dividend income from ‘Investment of Capital’. That’s $0 for two of the past three months in this category.
September’s total of $47.56 in additional forward dividend income has pushed me even farther past my 2018 annual goal of $8,700. At the end of September, my annual forward dividend income total reached over $8,791. Hitting $9K by year’s end looks like a possibility!
How did September turn out for you when it came to dividends? Have you passed your dividend income total from 2017 yet? What about crushing your 2018 goal? I look forward to hearing about your accomplishments!
I have updated the Portfolio & Dividends pages in conjunction with this monthly update.
Congrats on another 4 digit month of dividend income, Engineering Dividends! 24.74% yoy growth is very impressive and 10 consecutive months over $500 is amazing. Also, I really appreciate your chart that shows the power of dividend raises. This is proof that dividend growth investing works. The fact that dividend raises are growing your income faster than you can add capital or even than DRIP’s is eye-opening.
As for my dividend income, I earned $38.79 in September 2018. It was a 368% yoy increase because my income was such a small amount last year. I have surpassed the 2017 total and am currently sitting on a 347% increase for the year.
Thanks for sharing ED!
Thanks, Graham. I definitely had some good results this month. It’s amazing to see how powerful the dividend raises have become for me. You hit the nail on the head when you said it’s eye-opening that dividend raises are providing a bigger income boost than adding capital, especially considering that I’ve added over $22K of capital so far in 2018.
Those are some sweet YoY increases for the month, and the year so far. Your income from last year may have been small, but look at how you’ve grown it. That’s the way to do it. Keep up your investing and even more impressive results will be yours before you know it.
Thanks for your comments!
Love seeing TXN working out for your portfolio! I still mean to add Aflac to mine – that’s a nice increase from last year.
It was another slow month of dividend growth for me, but I think the next few months are going to make up for that. Nice job staying over $500 again.
I’m loving TXN, too. I’m hoping to add to my position, so I wouldn’t mind a temporary pullback in price.
AFL has been a big winner for me, as you know, so I’m certainly a fan of the company. I often see them mentioned in those “best companies to work for” lists. That should lead to some happy employees, and hopefully some productive ones, too.
I know you’ve been ramping up the investments recently, so it shouldn’t be too long before you see the impact in your dividend totals.
Awesome results ED!
Those 4-digit months are a beautiful thing, and as such it might be time to set the bar higher for that monthly streak as it looks like you’re crushing that $500/month mark. The results of your reinvested dividends and raises towards the forward income really show just how powerful the DGI approach can be. And that raise from TXN, wow!
I share 7 companies with you this month, although only received payments from 6 as the last one was a new add to my portfolio. Finishing up my recap and will be posting tomorrow.
Thanks, DivvyDad. Yeah, gotta love the 4-digit month. Hopefully, it was just the 2nd of many more to come. I suspect 4-digit months will only arrive on quarter-ending months for a while.
I agree I’m going to need to set a higher bar. I think I should be able to start a $600/mo. streak in December.
The TXN raise was terrific indeed. Too bad I don’t have more shares so that a raise like that could really move my forward dividend income up.
Your dividends should really ratchet up in the coming months, reflecting all your capital investments the past few months. I’m excited to see the impact. I’ll keep an eye open for your dividend post.
Looks like you engineered some dividends this month. Got some excellent companies paying you and some big payouts. Keep it up.
Ha ha, Doug. I agree. I’d engineer much more right now if I could, but I’ll have to be patient and let time do its thing.
I really like the companies paying me in the quarter-ending months. As you said, the payouts are getting big. I suspect PEP will be over $100/mo. by this time next year. So exciting!
SWEET! Those are some awesome results ED. Seeing your cross $1k again is just awesome man.
As said previously by others, what a result from dividend raises. Fascinating to see that impact on your forward income compares to capital investment.
For me, I surpassed 2017 and my 2018 goal, so pretty excited about that!
Thanks, Mr. Robot. $1K was awesome… and I agree that the impact of those dividend raises on my forward dividend income is enlightening. It’s good to know that I can still see significant dividend income growth even in the absence of capital investment.
Good to hear that you eclipsed last year’s dividend total already, as well as surpassed your 2018 goal… all by the 3/4 mark of the year, no less. Impressive!
Hi ED,
Congrats on yet another month with more than $1000 received! I am looking to reach my goal for 2018 as well, albeit not so quickly as you did – I will need to wait until September to see if it is successful. My totals for September were less than your smallest payer’s dividend 🙂 But if you check my September’s summary, you will see that I’ve got another reward during September which couldn’t be measured by money!
BI
Loved your special dividend in September, BI! Think you might receive another in the future?
I’m expecting to surpass last year’s dividend total in October… then push it as high as I can before year’s end. Sounds like you might be on the same trajectory.
Haha, we’ll see, if everything looks good, there may be one more at some point in the future 🙂
ED – I freaking love this dividend income report for so many reasons. Your close call with the four-digit club, the purchases adding some new muscle, the large dividend from QCOM, and the massive increase from TXN. All great things and your growth and progress continues to amaze. Keep it up and keep up the great freaking work here ED!
Bert
Thanks, Bert! A lot of good things going on in my Portfolio, as you highlighted. I’m rooting for some nice dividend raises in Oct. & Nov. in an attempt to reach $1K in new forward dividend income due to dividend raises in 2018. Wouldn’t that be something!?
I’m also coming up on meeting or surpassing some of my annual goals this month, so I look forward to raising the bar in Q4 and establishing a new baseline for 2019.
Cracking four digits is an awesome milestone not to mention a solid double digit year over year gain too. Congrats! Too bad GWW left your portfolio. I’m still holding on to mine but at least you replaced it with another solid name. Keep up the good work!
Hey DivHut! Yes, reaching 4 digits is amazing. Hopefully, it will be commonplace from here on out for the quarter-ending months.
The YoY growth will be hard to replicate over the next year, as I anticipate fewer contributions. I would expect the dividend raises we’ve seen in 2018 to slow a bit as well.
Yeah, GWW has performed well since I sold. FAST has been OK, but growth has been more subdued. Hopefully, FAST will start picking up some steam.
Congrats on the 1k month! That is awesome. I am nowhere near achieving that any time soon. But can’t wait to see you hit that number consistently in the future. Has to be a pretty nice feeling. Keep up the great work!
Thanks, Daze… definitely a good feeling. I bet you’ll hit $1K sooner than you think you might. You’ve already got the snowball rolling and just need to keep feeding it.