According to WordPress, this is my 100th post.  Who knew!  No better way to celebrate reaching 100 posts than to do it with a monthly dividend income report.

These posts are the foundation of the blog, and I enjoy sharing them.  So here’s to many more dividend income reports in the future.

The goal is to hopefully have my dividend income cover a substantial portion of my monthly retirement expenses.  My dividend income has certainly grown over the course of a few years, and I hope to continue with that growth.

While I didn’t set any dividend income records in April (in fact, this may end up being my lowest monthly total for the year), I did show some nice YoY growth again, so it’s hard to ask for much more.  With some perseverance, some luck, and of course some time, I should be in a good financial position years from now.

April saw a nice uptick in dividend raises compared to March, and I was able to get my first purchase of the year under my belt in April, so those were good developments this month.

I continue to creep up on $10K in forward dividend income, too.  I’ll continue to report on that as the milestone approaches.

Let’s see what April may have brought besides April showers… maybe it rained dividend income!?

 

Dividend Income

April showered me with a dividend total of $617.99.  This dividend total was a result of a 19.79% YoY increase compared to the $515.90 from April 2018.  Oh so close to 20% growth.

A total of 14 companies paid me a dividend this month.  The largest amount came from RPM International (RPM), providing $82.46.  However, this was closely followed by relative newcomer, Altria (MO), with $81.67.  The smallest dividend amount came from Main Street Capital (MAIN) at $24.31.  This amount is rather impressive considering MAIN pays out monthly instead of quarterly.

The increased dividend amounts from Illinois Tool Works (ITW) and Comcast (CMCSA) were helped by 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 amount Air Lease (AL).  One of the benefits provided from this low-yielder is a more aggressive dividend growth rate.  RPM showed a nice dividend boost as well.

Unfortunately, I saw some decreases in specific company dividend totals.  Both W.P. Carey (WPC) and Cardinal Health (CAH) saw declines.  Both of these were my doing, as partial sales over the past year led to these reductions.  I pared back on WPC as part of my plan to keep my dividend totals from REITs in check.  Meanwhile, I sold some CAH after a couple of years of non-performance as I looked for better opportunities.

April saw two new dividend payers arrive compared to last year in MO and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM).  Both of these stocks yield more than my Portfolio’s average.

Two departing dividend payers compared to last year are utility SCANA (SCG), and Ensign Group (ENSG).  SCG is now part of Dominion (D), after the acquisition closed early this year.  ENSG continues to do well in the wake of my premature sale last year.  Both of these stocks will fall out of the table next quarter.

April delivered an additional forward dividend income boost of $20.66 thanks to reinvesting my dividends this month.  It’s pretty exciting to know that at least $20/mo. in additional forward dividend income is coming my way each and every month thanks to my reinvested dividends.

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 April, my reinvested dividends resulted in the purchase of almost 12 new shares of stock.  The year-end total will be well over 100 shares.  Outstanding!

 

Dividend Raises

April dividend raise announcements offered a welcome boost over those from March.  While I only had 1 additional raise compared to March, the April raises were more significant, and the raises were from companies paying a larger percentage of my annual dividend total.  These two factors led to a noticeable increase in additional forward dividend income.

I had 4 companies announce a dividend raise in April.   None of the raises were large increases (although one is deceptively low), yet they weren’t as small as those from March either.  In fact, the raises came in a fairly tight percentage range.  Bottom line, they beat inflation… so I’ll take them!

Bank OZK (OZK) kicked off the raises in April with a 4.55% increase.  This is actually a much bigger raise than it appears since OZK currently offers up a raise every quarter.  On an annual basis, this raise is on the order of 18% should OZK keep up with the 1 penny raises in each of the final two quarters of the year.

My last three raises came from some very large-cap companies, all of whom have a sizable position in my Portfolio.

Procter & Gamble (PG) delivered first with a 4% raise.  While this is still a percent or so below what I’d like see, it’s on par with last year’s raise, and a step up from the previous couple of years prior to that.  Progress!

Exxon Mobil (XOM) produced a slick 6.1% raise.  (Yes, I went there 🙂 ).  Considering XOM’s struggles the past few years, this is a decent raise, matching the one nickel raise presented last year.

The last raise of April came from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) at 5.56%.  This is a slight drop from the annual 6%-7% raise that JNJ has announced for most of this past decade.

 

These raises contributed $61.86 to my additional forward dividend income.  This is not quite the $100+ total I hope for each month, but topping $50 for the month keeps me smiling.

I’d have to invest $2,361.07 at my Portfolio’s current average yield of 2.62% in order to equal the same boost to my annual forward dividend income that these dividend raises provided.  On a side note, this year’s market strength has dropped my Portfolio’s average yield from 3.00% to 2.62% in just 4 months.

As far as potential dividend raises in May, I’m expecting to hear from CAH, and hoping to hear from Qualcomm (QCOM) and Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH).  The possibility of a Lowe’s Companies (LOW) raise late in the month exists as well, although it could alternatively show up in June, too.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

Woohoo!  I’m thrilled to report my first purchase of 2019.

It was a brand new addition to my Portfolio, and was a net investment of $4,228.75.

You can read all about the purchase in my Recent Buy (GD) post.

The purchase of General Dynamics (GD) resulted in a $102.00 increase to my additional forward dividend income.

 

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.

 

Thanks to my first purchase of the year, April moved to the front of the pack with regard to boosting 2019’s additional forward dividend income ($184.52 in all).  Reinvested Dividends brought up the rear this month, but is on pace to provide about a $300 shot in the arm to my additional forward dividend income this year… excellent!

I’m now averaging over $120/mo. of additional forward dividend income in 2019.  However, this is well behind the monster pace I was able to achieve last year with all my new capital investment and those impressive 2018 dividend raises.  Still, I’m excited about my 2019 progress and hope to keep it going.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.

April may prove to be my lowest monthly dividend total of the year, but the chart still shows terrific YoY progress this month.

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.  I surpassed $3K for 2019 already, and I should be close to $5K by the half-way point.

 

Summary

Good results in April continue to push me towards upcoming milestones.  While April’s dividend income may be my lowest total for 2019, I had nearly 20% YoY growth.

Dividend raises picked up some with 4 Portfolio companies making a dividend raise announcement in April.  Raise percentages continue to outpace inflation.

My first purchase of 2019 has been made – a new addition to my Portfolio (#43).  I’m happy to see ‘additional forward dividend income’ coming from ‘Investment of Capital’ again.

The average ‘additional forward dividend income’ ticked higher in April after my best month of the year from that perspective.

I love following the continued progress in my Portfolio.  One month its dividend income that shines, the next it’s dividend raises or YoY growth.  It seems there’s always something good happening, and that’s what I like to see.

 

Did your Q2 get off to a good start?  Are you finding stocks to purchase despite market gains in 2019?  Please share in the Comments!

I have updated the Portfolio & Dividends pages in conjunction with this monthly update.