The quarter-ending months generally provide some of the biggest dividend totals with so many companies paying dividends on the Mar/June/Sept/Dec schedule.  For that reason, it’s hard not to be excited for the possibility of notching a record dividend total during such months.

Well, this September treated me well to say the least, as a record dividend total was mine, and by a healthy amount no less.  Not only that, but a record number of companies paid me a dividend as well.  A couple of unusual occurrences led to having additional dividend payers this month, which we’ll get into shortly.

Unfortunately, September is not big month for dividend raises in my Portfolio, but I did see a few.  Also, there wasn’t much in the way of new investments.  Thus, these two factors meant that my Portfolio only saw a modest bump in additional forward dividend income, but the annual total does continue to power forward.

Let’s check out what I’m talking about as we go over the dividend details for September…

 

Dividend Income

In September, I received a record dividend total of $1,221.31.  This was my first time crossing over the $1,200 threshold, and this dividend total was more than $88 better than my previous record total for a month.  Even more amazing to me was that in conjunction with the record dividend total I saw a stout 21.76% YoY increase compared to the $1,003.03 from September 2018.

A total of 21 companies paid me a dividend this month.  I believe that’s 2 or 3 more than any previous month.  The total was helped by a couple of shifts in payout schedules.  First, Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) delayed their dividend payment from August to September.  Second, Nike (NKE) pulled in their payment to the last day of September.  NKE usually pays on the first couple of days in October.  In addition, VF Corp (VFC) spinoff, Kontoor Brands (KTB), paid their first dividend, adding another payer for me.

Qualcomm (QCOM) led the dividend pack with an amount of $124.50.  Pepsico (PEP) wasn’t too far behind, paying me triple digits with a single payment for the first time.  I look forward to $100+ payments from PEP every time moving forward.  The smallest dividend amount came from previously mentioned spinoff KTB, with a $6.16 payment.

The increased dividend amounts from Gilead Sciences (GILD), Blackrock (BLK), and Target (TGT) were primarily 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.  That nice increase from Union Pacific (UNP) is thanks to two dividend raises in the past year.

Only one stock saw a reduced payout for me compared to last year, and that was VFC.  However, this was not due to a partial sale, but rather a dividend adjustment due to the KTB spinoff noted earlier.

September brought 6 new dividend payers compared to last year.  The circumstances surrounding 3 of the 6 payers (SWKS, NKE & KTB) were already covered.  The other three were due to new additions to my Portfolio over the past year.  3M Co. (MMM) was an add late in 2018.  Meanwhile, the payments from TCF Financial (TCF) and UnitedHealth Group (UNH) were the first I’ve received from each of them.

There were two dividends from last year that are no longer present this year.  One is Hanesbrands (HBI), which I jettisoned in hopes of finding better alternatives.  The other is Hershey (HSY) which I unloaded to lighten up on my Consumer Discretionary holdings.  In hindsight, my HSY sale was poorly timed, as HSY soon thereafter powered higher in price.

On a positive note, I saw an additional forward dividend income boost of $34.80 thanks to reinvesting my dividends in September.  This was my second best total for the year.

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 September, my reinvested dividends resulted in the purchase of over 12.1 new shares of stock.

Nearly all my dividends got reinvested in September, but not those from TCF or KTB.  This was the result of my broker not allowing reinvestment of the first dividend payment from a company.  TCF was the result of a merger, and KTB was the result of a spinoff.  I’m sure it has to do with processing the dividend payment for the first time.  In any case, this will be a one-time occurrence for both, and thus I expect to see their dividends reinvested next quarter.

 

Dividend Raises

It was a modest month with regard to dividend raises.  I had some small ones from quarterly payers, and one big one from a technology stalwart.

All totaled, in September I had 3 companies announce a dividend raise.  Happily, my streak of 3 or more dividend raises each month in 2019 continues.

It was a dividend raise dry spell until mid month, when I finally got news of the fractional raise from Realty Income (O).  It’s hard to get too excited about a 0.22% increase, but the payout keeps increasing, so I can’t complain too much, right?

Not to be outdone, just a day later fellow REIT W.P. Carey (WPC) announced an even smaller 0.19% raise.  What’s going on here?… we are going the wrong direction!

Thankfully, I only had to wait another day before those O and WPC raises could be replaced at the forefront of my mind.  You see, Texas Instruments (TXN) delivered in a big way.  TXN came through with an impressive 16.88% raise.  Now that’s what I’m talking about!  If only dividend raises could all be like this.  This continues the trend of strong dividend growth from TXN over the past decade.

 

These dividend raises contributed $28.10 to my additional forward dividend income.  TXN was able to salvage what would have been a meager total.

I’d have to invest $1,052.43 at my Portfolio’s current average yield of 2.67% in order to equal the same boost to my annual forward dividend income that these dividend raises provided.

Looking forward, I expect 4 of the next 5 months to bring in some fairly lofty dividend raise totals.  While dividend raise percentages might have been muted in 2019 compared to 2018, the volume of dividend raises in my Portfolio should pick up soon, so I’m excited to see what transpires.  In October, I believe I’ll hear at least 5 dividend raise announcements for stocks within my Portfolio.  I’m expecting to hear annual increases from RPM International (RPM), Visa (V), Crown Castle International (CCI), VFC, and Iron Mountain (IRM).  I continue to have some expectation for a raise announcement from Starbucks (SBUX), but I’ve said that the past couple of months, too.  QCOM has had 6 straight quarters with the same dividend payout, so I’m curious to know if a raise might be coming from QCOM, too.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

In early September, I managed to double my position in one of my smallest holdings.  The stock was UNH.  I only initiated my UNH position a few weeks ago, but it didn’t take me too long to add to it.  UNH has had some outstanding earnings growth and dividend growth, and I look for that to continue, thus I’m building this position.

You can peruse all the gory details in this recent post from early September: Recent Buy – UNH.

My forward dividend income increased by $25.92 thanks to this 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 at the start of the year, 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.

 

Sadly, no record numbers to report here, but again, steady progress was made.  ‘Dividend Raises’ continues to hold a slight lead over ‘Investment of Capital’ for now, but expect Dividend Raises to pull away in the next couple of months before finishing up the year on top.  I’d like to see the grand total for the trifecta of sources reach at least $1,600 by year’s end, but that may be a stretch.

Counting September, my average monthly amount of additional forward dividend income being generated in 2019 slipped a bit to ~$132/mo.  Hopefully, the expected uptick in Dividend Raises over the next couple of months will prevent that average from sagging any further.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.  Thanks to this month’s dividend total, I had to adjust the Y-axis maximum a bit higher than $1,200.  Oh yeah!

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.

Through September, one can see that I’m over three quarters of the way to $10K actual dividends for 2019… thus my belief that $10K in annual dividends is going to happen in 2019.  Excellent!

I can see a Y-axis adjustment coming next quarter for this chart, too.  🙂

 

Summary

This September was a record month for dividend income.  Over $1,221 was delivered to my account, indicating YoY growth over 21.7%.

Only three dividend raises were announced for stocks within my Portfolio, but I continued to see no less than three raises per month in 2019.

There were minimal Portfolio transactions in September… just a single purchase to be exact.  Stock shopping has been limited as I attempt to replenish my cash stockpile.

As September drew to a close, my Portfolio’s forward dividend income stood at $10,462.42, bringing my average to $871.87/mo.

It’s “steady as she goes” with my Portfolio as we head into the final quarter of 2019.  I hope we can have a strong finish to what’s already been a very good financial year.

 

Are your annual dividend goals in sight?  Are you making extraordinary efforts to achieve those goals, or do you think it will happen on its own given your current position?  I look forward to your Comments!

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