This July dividend report is being posted a little later than normal, but for good reason.  I took a short vacation beginning on the 1st of August.  I returned home to some market volatility for sure, but my dividends piled up in my account as expected.  I love the predictability of that dividend income!

My Portfolio value continued to grow during July as well, so that was nice to see, no doubt.

There hasn’t been a whole lot of activity in my Portfolio this year due to my reduced cash hoard, but I’m generally happy with the status of my Portfolio.  I’d like to do more buying when we see some dips like we did to start August, but I’m sure more opportunities will arise in the future.

After crossing $10K in forward dividend income recently, I’ve set my sights on $12K, or an average of $1K/mo.  I suspect this should happen late next year if I keep up my current momentum.  I’ll keep steadily marching towards that goal.

In between now and then, I’ve probably got over a dozen monthly dividend reports to churn out… and it starts with this one for July.  Here we go!

 

Dividend Income

In July, I received a dividend total of $625.20.  While this was far from a monthly record, I did manage to tally a 22.91% YoY increase compared to the $508.67 from July 2018.  I’ll take that YoY growth any time.

A total of 15 companies paid me a dividend this month.  The largest amount came from RPM International (RPM), which was in a close contest with Altria Group (MO) for the top spot.  I suspect MO might overtake RPM next quarter, but with a dividend raise announcement pending from each company before then, who knows.  The smallest dividend amount came from newcomer Eastman Chemical (EMN) at $18.60.

The increased dividend amounts from MO, Illinois Tool Works (ITW), and Comcast (CMCSA) were the result of 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.

A couple of stocks saw a reduced payout for me compared to last year due to a partial sale of the stock.  W.P. Carey (WPC) and Cardinal Health (CAH) are those two stocks.  I trimmed WPC last November and CAH last December.

July brought three new dividend payers compared to last year.  JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) arrived in my Portfolio last December, while Iron Mountain (IRM) and Eastman Chemical (EMN) were more recent purchases.

My recent sale of Bank OZK (OZK) means no more dividend payments from that company starting this July.  I’ll miss OZK’s quarterly dividend raises.

July saw an additional forward dividend income boost of $22.33 thanks to reinvesting my dividends this month.  I’m hoping that a minimum of $25/mo. additional forward income from reinvested dividends is not too far away.

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.  In July, my reinvested dividends resulted in the purchase of nearly 11.2 new shares of stock.  I add about 11-12 new shares/mo. thanks to reinvesting dividends.

 

Dividend Raises

In the first half of the year, my Portfolio saw three or more dividend raises each month.

Thankfully, that trend continued in July.  Although, I was on the lower end of that range as I had 3 companies announce a dividend raise.

Interestingly, two of my three dividend raises were from companies that had already raised in 2019.  I couldn’t say I expected either one.  My 3rd and final raise was from a Portfolio newcomer and was delivered as expected.

The month started off with a raise announcement from Fastenal (FAST).  Their 2.33% raise may seem small, but add this to the 7.5% raise from January, and this year’s raise percentage for FAST is at an even 10%.

Union Pacific (UNP) was the other company to announce a 2nd raise for me this year.  UNP came through with a 10.23% raise, topping their 10.0% raise from this past February.  How awesome is that?  That’s now two years in a row with two dividend raises from UNP!

Finally, a new addition to the Portfolio, Zions Bancorp. (ZION) announced a 13.33% raise.  I was happy to see such a healthy raise.  It was certainly one of my better dividend raise percentages of the year.  Unfortunately, since my ZION position is so new, it’s also fairly small, and thus the large raise percentage didn’t impact my forward dividend income too much.

 

These dividend raises contributed $44.85 to my additional forward dividend income.  However, I adjusted this total down by $2.02 thanks to the Kontoor Brands (KTB) spinoff from VF Corp (VFC).  The fractional KTB share that was sold in the spinoff resulted in the loss of $2.02 in forward dividend income, and I’m reflecting it here.  Thus, my total $ increase in July due to all this activity is $42.83.  Even after the reduction, this amount is still the best I’ve had since April.

I’d have to invest $1,598.13 at my Portfolio’s current average yield of 2.68% in order to equal the same boost to my annual forward dividend income that these dividend raises provided.

In August, I expect to have 3 or more dividend raise announcements as well.  I’m expecting to see annual increases from the newly formed TCF Financial (TCF), Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), MO, and ITW.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

July saw a single add-on purchase.  It wasn’t much, but it continues to grow my Portfolio.  I added to my fairly new Chemical Financial (CHFC) position, building my position a bit.

On the 1st of August, CHFC officially merged with TCF, and now trades under the TCF ticker symbol.

You can read all the details on this purchase in my Recent Buy – CHFC post from last month.

My forward dividend income increased by $68.00 with the purchase.

 

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.

 

No blowout additional forward dividend income this month, but good progress nonetheless.  It’s a tight race between ‘Dividend Raises’ and ‘Investment of Capital’ right now, but I expect Dividend Raises to prevail by year’s end.

My average monthly amount of additional forward dividend income being generated in 2019 remains at $136/mo.

 

Progress Charts

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

I was able to continue my YoY increases yet again in July.

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.  I’m now over $5.5K thus far in 2019, exceeding my total for all of 2016.

 

Summary

Solid progress continued in July.  I registered over $625 in dividend income with close to 23% YoY growth.

I was able to bank three dividend raises to keep my 2019 monthly streak alive of three or more dividend raises each month.  Two of the raises were 10% or more!

One purchase was also made during July to help continue to grow my Portfolio.  I added to one of my regional banks.

At the end of July, my Portfolio’s forward dividend income stands at $10,229.93.  This is an average of $852.49/mo.

I look forward to even bigger dividend totals in August, with hopefully more raises to power my forward dividend income higher.  Until then…

 

Has your dividend income steadily improved in 2019?  Or have you encountered any setbacks to your progress?  No matter what… keep investing!

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