The market appeared to weaken some in September, but my Portfolio seemed to gain some strength.

For the first time since April, my Portfolio saw positive contributions in all 3 of the categories that boost my forward dividend income.  That was long overdue.

In recent months, if it wasn’t a dividend cut that set me back, it was a sale during some Portfolio re-shuffling that did the trick.  Luckily, that’s now a thing of the past (at least for one month), and it feels like my Portfolio is on the upswing.

So, what’s got me feeling this way?  Well, let’s start with near record dividend income for a month.  I fell about $15 shy of a record total, but I did reach my 2nd best total ever, and crack $1,300 for the 3rd time.

For the 2nd month in a row, I avoided a dividend cut/suspension, so that’s always a positive.  However, even better is the fact that I tallied multiple dividend raises.  How many you ask?  Keep reading.  I will tell you though that it was the most raises I’ve had in 6 months.

I did eliminate a Portfolio position in September, but that was offset by a pair of additions to existing positions, and the addition of a new stock to the Portfolio.  The best part is that the net additional forward dividend income was substantial, and my best monthly total of 2020.

Unfortunately, my Portfolio value dipped a bit in September, ending a 5-month streak of gains.  However, it wasn’t enough to overcome all the positive news I noted above.

Anyway, let’s get to some dividend details for September…

 

Dividend Income

 

It was nearly a record total with $1,311.96 in dividend income in September (my 2nd best total ever).  YoY growth was a little tepid though, coming in at 7.42% when comparing this September’s dividend total to the $1,221.31 from September 2019.  This was only about half of the 15% mark I like to target for YoY growth.  After last month saw me achieve my lowest monthly YoY gain for the year, this month was even lower… so the recent numbers certainly reflect slower dividend growth in my Portfolio.

A total of 20 companies paid me a dividend in September, with a solid 5 stocks delivering triple-digit amounts.

Qualcomm (QCOM) was at the top of my dividend payer list this month, delivering a superb $134.77.  QCOM is the 2nd biggest dividend payer in my Portfolio behind Abbvie (ABBV).

The triple-digit payout from Exxon Mobil (XOM) will be my last, as I sold my XOM position in its entirety in August.  That’s a hefty total have to replace, but I’ve been working on that, as you’ll soon see.  Due to my XOM sale, you’ll notice the lack of dividend reinvestment for this stock.

I received over $100 from Pepsico (PEP) and T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) as well.  The income from these two has been growing nicely.

My final triple-digit payer for the month, and a newcomer relative to last year, was Broadcom (AVGO).  AVGO delivered $103.19 in September.  I love the combination of higher yield and high dividend growth that AVGO provides.

The increased dividend amounts from XOM, Aflac (AFL), 3M Co. (MMM), and UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 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.  The dividend gains from QCOM, PEP, TROW, and BlackRock (BLK) were all over $10 and all organic.  I love seeing that.

You’ll also see a trio of dividend payout reductions this month from Gilead Sciences (GILD), TCF Financial (TCF) and Realty Income (O).  These were the result of partial sales of the positions over the past year.  Most of the sales took place this past February-April as I raised cash to either solidify existing positions or establish new ones during the market downturn.

I had 3 new dividend payers this year compared to last September.  The new payout from AVGO easily leads that list, with smaller amounts from Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and Microsoft (MSFT).  WFC is no longer a newcomer though, as I sold my entire position earlier this month after the dividend cut and lackluster near term prospects.

As for stocks that no longer paid me a dividend in September, there were four of them.  The one from Nike (NKE) was just due to a timing change on the payout from last year (late September) to this year (early October).  The others were due to sales of the stock.  I sold Target (TGT) early this year when my call option was assigned.  I sold out of Crown Castle International (CCI) as part of my REIT reduction, and I sold Kontoor Brands (KTB) due to it being such a small part of my Portfolio and having no desire to add to it… especially after its dividend suspension.

As usual, I reinvested all dividends into the stocks that paid them, resulting in an additional forward dividend income boost of $35.44.  I was able to surpass my $25 monthly target without much trouble thanks to it being a quarter-ending month with big dividend totals.

As a result of the reinvested dividends, I purchased nearly 12.5 shares of stock in September.  This includes over 1 share each for QCOM, AFL (over 2 shares here), GILD and TCF.

 

Dividend Raises

It felt like a banner month for dividend raises in September.  I recorded 5 dividend raise announcements, the most I’ve had since March.

On top of that, I had no dividend cuts or suspensions, so overall, raises felt especially bountiful.

Raises were announced by a couple of Technology names, a couple of REITs, and a Consumer Discretionary company.

The month started off slowly, with no announcements until the middle of the month, but then things started to heat up.

Microsoft (MSFT) brought a 9.8% raise, which is about on par with the annual raises from 2017 to the present.  If my MSFT position wasn’t so small, my forward dividend income would have felt a much bigger impact from this raise.

That was followed by a 13.33% raise from Texas Instruments (TXN).  This was a cooling off of sorts from recent raises from TXN, but still very appreciated, as any double digit raise would be.

My quarterly REIT raisers, W.P. Carey (WPC) and O announced their typically fractional raises, both on the order of about 0.2%.  Not much, but it adds to the total.

Lastly, it was a surprise announcement from Starbucks (SBUX) on the last day of the month.  I was expecting SBUX to announce a raise in October, but they delivered the news early.  It was a 9.76% raise from SBUX.  This was nowhere near the elevated percentages they’ve announced in past years, but given the headwinds the company has faced with store closures in 2020 due to the pandemic, I find the nearly 10% raise to be exceptional.

 

 

These 5 dividend raises increased my forward dividend income by $47.30.  This was my best total since February, or just prior to when market reaction to the pandemic really heated up.  I hope it only gets better from here.

I’d have to invest $1,791.67 at my Portfolio’s current average yield of 2.64% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.

Looking ahead to October, I expect to hear about raises from RPM International (RPM), Visa (V), VF Corp (VFC) and Iron Mountain (IRM).  As it turns out, RPM already announced a raise this week, but I’ll save that for next month’s report.  There’s also an outside chance that Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI) manages a small raise.  This company used to announced quarterly raises, but that hasn’t been the case for a couple of years.  This October will be one year since their last dividend raise, which is why I think there’s a possibility of one.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

Another month, another stock departure from my Portfolio.  I’d say that was one of the September highlights with respect to dividends due to new investment.

Now granted a sale really doesn’t qualify as “new investment”, but it did impact my forward dividend income, so it’s included here.

I did manage 3 purchases though, 2 that added to existing Portfolio positions and one that was a new Portfolio addition altogether.

My new position was big enough to recoup a good majority of the lost dividend income from my XOM sale in August.  Thus, it was the biggest contributor to the forward dividend income boost I received in September.

Technically, my Cisco Systems (CSCO) purchase was in October (the 1st day).  I haven’t included it in my September totals, but it was part of the same post as my late September purchase, which is why it shows below.

You can read all about my 4 September transactions (ignore CSCO until next month) in the following posts:

Recent Transactions – WFC, UNH, TCF

Recent Buy – WBA & CSCO

Accounting for all the September transactions, I made a net investment of $5,390.00.  Additionally, my net forward dividend income from capital investment was $294.17.  That’s more like it, especially after the big negative month in August.  If fact, this was my best monthly total for 2020.  My forward dividend income is now nearly back to an all-time high, at $11,618.03.  However, I’m still trying to reach that magical $12K number, or $1K/mo.

The one sale eliminated a stock from my Portfolio, but one returned with my new addition.  Thus, the number of holdings remained at 48.

 

Tallying Up The Additional Forward Dividend Income

In 2020, I continue tracking my additional forward dividend income generated each month from the trifecta of sources: reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and new capital investment.

I’ll be showing 2019’s totals, too, so that we can compare as the year progresses.

 

 

Happily, I stopped the 2-month streak of reductions to my forward dividend income.  Not only that, at $376.91, it was my best monthly total for the year.

Most of the gain was generated by my Investment of Capital (not as passive as I’d like), but I still had some good totals from the Reinvested Dividends and Dividend Raises categories.

Reinvested Dividends has a decent shot to end up as my biggest forward dividend income contributor for 2020.  However, I have several holdings that should announce dividend raises in Q4, so Dividend Raises could be the winner by year’s end as well.

For 2020, I don’t foresee coming anywhere close to 2019’s additional forward dividend income total.  At this point, I’ll hope to cross the $1K mark.  As long as I avoid dividend cuts and suspensions, I should be in good shape to do that.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.  Another month over $1,300… I’ll take it.  However, it will most likely be next year before I’ll need to increase my Y-axis scale.

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.  Look at that… it took 9 months in 2020 to surpass my 2018 dividend total.  Good progress!

 

 

Summary

Things were looking up on the dividend front in September.  Dividend income rolled in, dividend raises seem plentiful, and some purchases boosted my forward dividend income substantially.

I notched by 2nd best monthly total ever with nearly $1,312 in dividends from 20 different dividend payers.  Unfortunately, YoY growth was my lowest for the year at 7.42%.  However, I expect to return to double digit percentages the next two months.

My reinvested dividends continue to produce a nice boost to my Portfolio.  My forward dividend income was raised by over $35 as a result of reinvestment.

For the 2nd month in a row, I suffered no dividend freezes/cuts/suspensions.  On a more positive note, I had 5 dividend raises!  The group of raises resulted in over $47 of additional forward dividend income.

New Portfolio addition Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) brought a hefty increase to my forward dividend income.  In total, all my September transactions netted a forward dividend increase of just over $294.

Tallying up the contributions from all forward dividend income categories, I recorded by best monthly total for 2020 with nearly $377.   This will most likely be my best total for 2020, as I don’t anticipate repeating the large levels of new capital investment that I had in September.

While dividends were hot for me in September, the market cooled a bit and my Portfolio value dipped in conjunction.  However, it was nothing to get excited about.  I’m staying the course.

Here’s wishing continued progress to everyone when it comes to dividends!

 

What’s the plan for your portfolio in Q4?  Persist with consistently adding to your positions?  Stockpile some cash?  Do some portfolio cleanup before we reach 2021?  Please share in the Comments!

I have updated the Portfolio & Dividends pages in conjunction with this monthly update.  Be sure to check out my Portfolio Treemap on the Portfolio page if you haven’t seen it yet.