One quarter down… just like that. Where did all the time go? This makes me think of a line from one of my favorite movies, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off…
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
So true! Well, I’m looking around now, and what do I find?…. Record dividend income in March! Thus far in 2019, I haven’t been able to devote as much time to blogging or my Portfolio as desired, but my Portfolio continued its work, delivering a record amount of dividends this month.
It’s a terrific feeling to know my Portfolio will churn out those dividends while I’m focused on other endeavors and tasks. Passive income, indeed.
While dividend income set a record, dividend raises were as minimal as expected, and new capital investment was unfortunately lacking once again.
However, the additional forward dividend income kept climbing higher on my quest to reach $10K sometime in 2019.
Let’s check out my totals from March…
Dividend Income
March’s dividend income came with a blowout total of $1,080.42… a new record for a single month. This dividend total was a result of a 15.49% YoY increase compared to the $935.53 from March 2018. This puts an end to my 2-month streak of 30%+ YoY growth. However, I won’t be complaining about growth numbers over 15%.
A total of 17 companies paid me a dividend this month. The largest amount came from Qualcomm (QCOM), delivering $122.16. This QCOM payout is a record monthly dividend amount from any company in my Portfolio. Records all around! The smallest dividend amount came from Visa (V) at $20.42. This is a fairly hefty total considering V is a notoriously low-yield stock.
The increased dividend amounts from Pepsico (PEP), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Blackrock (BLK), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Target (TGT), and Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) were helped by additional purchases over the past year. Apparently, I was busy buying last year!
Increased amounts for the other companies were a result of dividend increases and reinvested dividends over the past year. Check out the increased amount from Union Pacific (UNP). This was mainly a result of a couple of dividend raises in the last 12 months. QCOM has had a nice bump up, too. A dividend raise and some healthy reinvested dividends led to this increase.
March brought one new dividend payer compared to last year in 3M Co. (MMM). This was my first MMM dividend after a late 2018 initial purchase… happy to see it!
Two departing dividend payers compared to last year are Hershey (HSY) and Hanesbrands (HBI). Both were sold last year in hopes of finding better alternatives.
March saw an additional forward dividend income boost of $34.54 thanks to reinvesting my dividends this month. This amount came up just shy of the record amount of forward dividend income due to reinvested dividends for a single month ($34.81 set last December).
Starting this year, I introduced another column in the dividend income table to show the actual number of “New Shares” that were purchased with the reinvested dividends. For March, my reinvested dividends resulted in the purchase of over 12 new shares of stock. In the 1st quarter of 2019, I’ve already acquired over 34 new shares due to reinvested dividends.
Dividend Raises
March saw a significant cool down with regard to dividend raises. This was not unexpected, but disappointing compared to the results from the first two months of the year.
However, any new income is good income. I know we can agree on that.
I had 3 companies announce a dividend raise in March. This is half the number of raises from last month. In addition, two of the three raises were on the small side. These factors certainly put a dent in the additional forward dividend income obtained from dividend raises.
Gentex (GNTX) started things off with a 4.55% raise… this turned out to be my largest % increase of the month. I would have liked to see the raise be another half penny higher. The reduced raise percentages in 2019 compared to 2018 remains evident.
My last two raises were from a couple of my REITs… both usually announce raises at least quarterly. Unfortunately, both announced raises were less than 0.25%.
Realty Income (O) announced their 2nd raise of 2019 at 0.22% (this followed a 2.04% raise in January). I’d expect more of the same from O for the remaining quarter-ending months of 2019. This should result in O delivering about a 3% increase for the entire year.
Lastly, W.P. Carey (WPC) announced a 0.19% raise, bumping the dividend by 1/5 of a cent. This was a notable slowdown from the 1/2 cent raises the company has been delivering each quarter over the last two years. I was hoping WPC would increase its dividend growth percentage, but unfortunately it went in the opposite direction.
These raises contributed $8.68 to my annual forward dividend income. This is nowhere near the $100+ totals from either of the first two months of 2019, but it’s a gain, and I’m happy with it.
I’d have to invest $314.49 at my Portfolio’s current average yield of 2.76% in order to equal the same boost to my annual forward dividend income that these dividend raises provided.
I’m expecting the dividend raises to pick up again next month. I’m looking for raise announcements from 5 of my Portfolio companies. These include Bank OZK (OZK), QCOM, Procter & Gamble (PG), XOM and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).
Dividends Due To New Investment
For the 3rd month in a row, I had no new capital investment. However, my cash coffers are growing now, so I don’t suspect it should be too long before I make a purchase. Could April be the month? Despite the market run-up in 2019, I still have a few stocks on my purchase radar.
Unfortunately, thanks to another month of no purchases in March, there was a $0 increase to my additional forward dividend income due to new investments.
Tallying Up The Additional Forward Dividend Income
This year I continue with tracking the additional forward dividend income generated each month from the trifecta of sources: reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and new capital investment.
I’m also showing 2018’s totals so that that we can compare as the year goes along.
As noted in previous 2019 reports, I anticipate that my Reinvested Dividends total will move higher in 2019, but that I’ll see a reduction in the total from the Dividend Raises and the Investment of Capital.
March saw my Reinvested Dividends lead the way in boosting my additional forward dividend income. The last time this happened for me was September of 2018.
Despite the lack of new capital investment to start the year, I’m still averaging over $100/mo. of additional forward dividend income in 2019. How awesome is that!?
Progress Charts
The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.
You can see the record monthly total just obtained in March… Maybe I can surpass the $1,100 mark in June.
On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like. I was just shy of $2,500 in dividend income in Q1’19!… not too far off from 2015’s annual total.
Summary
Record dividend income was reported in March (over $1,080), on the back of nearly 15.5% YoY growth. Last year’s investments continue to pay off in 2019.
Dividend raises were minimal as only 3 companies made an announcement, and the raise percentages were on the low side.
Again, no new capital investment in March… that’s 3 months running. I hope to fix that fairly soon.
Additional forward dividend income Marched higher (pun intended) thanks primarily to reinvested dividends this time around.
To wrap up this month’s report… with regard to a dividend income stream, let’s go back to one more quote from Ferris Bueller…
“It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”
Have you been snapping up any stocks in 2019? Or might you instead be adding to your cash hoard in preparation for the next market pullback? How many common dividend payers did we share in March? Tell me all about it in the Comments!
I have updated the Portfolio & Dividends pages in conjunction with this monthly update.
Congrats on your record setting month and nearly 15.5% YoY growth, Engineering Dividends! That’s awesome news. I agree that any gain is a good gain regarding the dividend raises. We didn’t share any common dividend payers, but we both had record months. As always, I enjoyed your write-up so thanks for sharing!
Happy to share the results, Graham. I love setting new records and pushing the dividend totals ever higher. The raises may have been muted in March, but we are going to make up for it in April, hopefully.
Wow, no common dividend payers. I look forward to the time when you can divulge all your dividend payers. I’m curious to see where your income is coming from. Perhaps you’ve unearthed some winners I should know about!
Thanks for stopping in and commenting. ‘Til next month…
I would love to have a few common payers from your month. I want to own JNJ, PEP and O at the very least. I can also let you know that my largest payers in March were ENB followed by Fortis. The main positions that I am not divulging are Canadian financial institutions for the time being. And I will certainly be stopping by next month! I look forward. 🙂
Very nice! It seems we are both in the same situation, staying on the sidelines for a few months. Like you said, passive income indeed. Great to see it thriving even when we don’t pay any attention to it.
I’m with you Dozer with regard to having the portfolio works its magic while we focus elsewhere.
Hopefully, I won’t have to be on the sidelines much longer.
Those progress charts are looking really solid! I can’t find a single month with negative growth.
March was a slow month on dividend raises, but fortunately April is looking much better!
Yes, DD, it’s been a great run of progress… certainly reflected in the charts. I hope to keep up with the positive growth each and every month on a YoY basis.
As for the raises, yes, March was certainly slow, but I agree that April is looking much better. In fact, I believe I heard of a dividend raise from PG today!
Fantastic, you’ve done really well. I’m sure you’ll reach your 10k mark this year. Thanks for the update.
Hey BHL, good to hear from you. I’m always happy to share these dividend updates.
I’m thinking I’ll reach $10K in forward dividends by year’s end without too much trouble, but I’m secretly hoping to secure $10K in actual dividends as well. We’ll see what I can cook up.
Congrats on a recording breaking 4-digit month ED! Very impressive! Keep up the great work! 🙂
Thanks, MDD! Congrats to you as well. We’ll have to see if we can crack the $10K mark for the year now.
Love ready your detailed updates. I too should start putting together progress charts and such – so cool. I have the data, so I will try this soon.
Congrats on your progress! It’s difficult balancing between investing now vs saving for a “maybe” recession soon – but at least as dividend investors, even money invested now would still benefit us in the form of more shares during a bear market.
Cheers
Glad you like the updates. I like seeing the progress charts as well… they provide some inspiration to “keep it going”.
It’s been a bit of a dry spell with regard to new investments, but that’s purely a function of lacking capital as opposed to not finding anything of value to purchase. I hope to jump back on the investment wagon real soon.
Good job, moving in the right direction for sure you can defiantly see the progress. Keep it up
Thanks, Doug. I’m definitely liking my progress these days, but with no investments the last few months, that progress will show some slowing in the coming months.
However, I’m as motivated as ever to continue investing. My cash pile is growing and I hope to deploy some of it soon.
Solid showing for the month of March. Double digit year over year gains are nothing to sneeze at. You are definitely heading in the right direction. Like the GILD payments too. I still think I could add to my holdings as it’s still a small part of my portfolio. Keep up the good work.
I like the direction my Portfolio is going, DivHut. I agree, hard to argue against double-digit YoY growth. I hope to resume my capital investments soon to ensure that future months can exhibit similar results.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
Great milestone ED, congrats on a $1k month! Its one of the best feelings to pay less attention to your investments and then check in to see things getting better and better 🙂
Cheers, Frankie
Thanks, Frankie! Definitely a great feeling to see the Portfolio working for me, for sure. It’s also great knowing it should only get better with time.
got to love those records e.d
congrats!
Nice list of companies paying ya. Id love to get pepsi, jnj and mmm.
That growth graph looks fantastic!
keep it up
cheers
Oh boy do I love the records, Rob. The best part is knowing more records lie in my future. June is usually my best month, so I’ll have some expectations there.
Nothing stopping you from snapping up some PEP, JNJ and MMM… go get ’em! But only at a good price, of course. 🙂
Congrats with a new record ED!
Probably, what I loved most is that you are averaging more than $100/month for added additional income without adding any additional capital. That’s the passive income snowball in action!
Thank you, BI! I love setting new dividend income records.
Averaging over $100/mo. in additional forward dividend income to start 2019 without investing a dollar was terrific, but I’m planning to give my forward dividend income a boost with some new capital investment. Stay tuned…
Congrats on record high and cross $1000!
Much appreciated, DSFI. I keep feeding my Portfolio and it keeps delivering new records. I’m intrigued to see how far I can take it before needing its income for monthly living expenses.
Never saw the movie, although it’s a classic. I must see it one day.
How amazing is that amount of dividends and that QCOM payout is amazing!
Keep up the hard work, I’m anxiously looking towards what you will buying. I just bought me some WBA.
Yes, check out the movie, Mr. Robot. I’d love to hear what you think.
March dividends were awesome and QCOM certainly helped with the record-setting total. Glad to see that QCOM settled their dispute with AAPL today and that chapter is closed. The boost in QCOM share price was exciting… hopefully, more to come.
23% in a day for QCOM! This is the first time I seriosly consider(ed?) selling my shares for an instant boost 🙂
Tack on another 12% for good measure!
Very solid dividend income for March and I love looking at those charts. Congrats! We managed to pull almost $2000 in dividend income in March. Very pleased with the progress.
Hey Tawcan, glad you stopped by! Those charts are painting a pretty picture so far. Hopefully the picture turns into a masterpiece by the time I’m done building the Portfolio.
If $1K is great I can only imagine what $2K feels like. You are consistently working your way there… so wonderful to see. I’ll be watching.