Welcome, everyone!  Time to report about all things dividends when it comes to my Portfolio.  We just put a wrap on the 1st month of the final quarter of 2020.  We are definitely in the home stretch of this unusual year.

The market ended a bit lower as October drew to a close, with a precipitous drop in the last week.  However, it wasn’t a bad drop for the month overall.  My Portfolio drifted a bit lower, but the dividend results look good.  I’d call it another good month with regard to dividend income.

For the 2nd month in a row, my Portfolio saw positive contributions in all 3 of the categories that boost my forward dividend income.  That’s what I call progress.

Happily, I avoided any dividend cuts/suspension this month, and only notched dividend raises.  It’s so beautiful when it goes according to plan.

Not a lot of Portfolio additions in October, but I did manage to make one… and there were no sales to speak of.  That always helps keep the Portfolio growth in order.

I’m excited to share my progress this month.  Let’s check out my dividends for October…

 

Dividend Income

 

I recorded a solid dividend total of $784.71 in dividend income for October.  Even better, YoY growth came in strong, with my best total of the year.  It was 26.87% when comparing this October’s dividend total to the $618.50 from October 2019.  This is well over the 15% mark I like to target for YoY growth, and a nice recovery from my lowest YoY growth total of the year from last month.

A total of 17 companies paid me a dividend in October.  However, none managed to reach triple-digit amounts (although a pair are getting close).

Altria (MO) was my top dividend payer this month, providing $97.80.  Come next April, MO should start delivering a triple-digit dividend to me.

Close behind was RPM International (RPM), which added $92.31 to my dividend total.  RPM is a long-time holding of mine that keeps delivering.

The increased dividend amount from Comcast (CMCSA) was 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 YoY dividend gains from MO, RPM, Illinois Tool Works (ITW) and Air Lease (AL) were all north of $5, and all organic.

I recorded a pair of dividend payout reductions in October, and this was due to my REIT trimming over the past year.  Those reductions were from W.P. Carey (WPC) and Realty Income (O).  I have the opportunity to buy back those shares at much lower prices.  That’s something I’ve been pondering as of late, especially with O.

In the table, you can spot 4 new dividend payers this year compared to last October.  The payouts from Automatic Data Processing (ADP), Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Sysco (SYY) were the result of newly initiated positions over the past year.  However, the Nike (NKE) payout this month was not due the stock being a new position for me, but rather a change in the timing of the NKE dividend.  NKE paid on the last day of September in 2019, but paid on the first day of October in 2020.

Happily, I didn’t have any stocks that no longer paid me a dividend in October.  I’m sure this contributed to my nice YoY growth this month.

As usual, I reinvested all dividends into the stocks that paid them, resulting in an additional forward dividend income boost of $30.99.  Crossing that $30 level is nice considering that I target surpassing $25 on a monthly basis.

As a result of the reinvested dividends, I purchased over 14.3 shares of stock in October.  This includes over 2 shares of MO, and over 1 share for RPM, AL, Gentex (GNTX) and Iron Mountain (IRM).

 

Dividend Raises

It was another good month for dividend raises.  While my raise total of 4 fell one shy of last month, the boost to my forward dividend income was the best since February.

My raises were spread across stocks from 4 different sectors.  The increase percentages showed some variety as well.

RPM was my first stock to announce a raise in October.  The company came through with a 5.56% raise, nearly double last year’s 2.86%.  With the decent dividend weighting that RPM has in my Portfolio, the raise resulted in a near $20 boost to my forward dividend income.

My smallest raise for the month was next.  VF Corp (VFC) announced a 2.08% raise.  This was far short of last year’s 11.63% raise, but given the backdrop of the pandemic, I’ll give the company a pass in 2020, and hope for better next time around.

This year’s raise from Visa (V) was difficult to find.  News outlets didn’t seem to pick up the announcement.  I read about the raise just this week, then had to go track down the information to confirm it.  As it was, V announced a 6.67% increase.  This was well shy of last year’s 20% boost, but V is another company impacted noticeably by the pandemic, so the reduced bump seems reasonable.

My last raise announcement for October was definitely the best.  Not only was the 10.17% raise from Abbvie (ABBV) my biggest in October, but it had the biggest impact on my forward dividend income since the stock has the largest dividend weighting in my Portfolio.  The forward dividend income boost was $59.54… that’s more than I’ve received in any of the past 7 months… from a single stock no less!  By the way, the 10.17% raise was on par with last year’s 10.28% boost that ABBV delivered.

 

 

These 4 dividend raises increased my forward dividend income by $89.03.  This was my best monthly boost in this category since February.

I’d have to invest $3,285.24 at my Portfolio’s current average yield of 2.71% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.

Looking ahead to November, it should be another good month for raises.  I hope to hear at least 5 dividend raise announcements from the following Portfolio companies: AL, ADP, NKE, SYY and Hormel Foods (HRL).  November would also be the time we might typically expect to hear from The Walt Disney Co. (DIS), but given their current dividend suspension, I think we can take this one off the table.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

Not much new investment to report on in October.   However, I do have a purchase to report from the 1st day of the month.

I added some shares of CSCO, growing my position a bit.  The stock price hasn’t recovered at all since that time, so CSCO remains ripe for another potential purchase.

You can read all about this lone October transaction in the following post. (ignore WBA since it was purchased in September, but shared the post)

Recent Buy – WBA & CSCO

In total, I made an investment of $775.  Additionally, my forward dividend income resulting from the capital investment was $28.80.

Since the purchase was to an existing Portfolio position, my 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.

 

 

Positive numbers in all 3 categories led to a nice monthly total.  I hadn’t done that in back-to-back months since March & April.  Adding it all up, October’s boost to forward dividend income was $148.82.

Most of the gain came from Dividend Raises, but I received some good additions from the Reinvested Dividends and Investment of Capital categories as well.

Dividend Raises seized the year-to-date forward dividend income lead from Reinvested Dividends in October.  If Dividend Raises can secure that position over the next couple of months, it will finish the year providing the biggest annual boost to my forward dividend income for the 3rd consecutive year.

Also, Reinvested Dividends has a chance to reach $400 by year’s end… that would be nice to see.

While I won’t come close to surpassing 2019’s additional forward dividend income total,  I can see a path to at least $1,100.  That didn’t seem possible at the end of August.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.  I project that this month should be my last under $800. (no looking back now!)

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.  I should be able to eclipse last year’s dividend total next month.  Then it’ll be time to pad those totals in December!

 

 

Summary

I’d classify October’s dividend events as positive, without a doubt.  I recorded a nice dividend total on the back of superb YoY growth, notched a quartet of dividend raises, and added a small purchase to continue growing the Portfolio.

I raked in nearly $785 in dividends from 17 different dividend payers.  Even better, YoY growth was my best for the year at 26.87%.

My reinvested dividends continue their good 2020 run.  They are on their way to a record year-end total.  My forward dividend income was essentially raised by $31 as a result of reinvestment in October.

It’s been no dividend cuts/suspensions for 3 months now… let’s keep it that way!  Instead, I logged 4 dividend raises.  The raises resulted in just over $89 of additional forward dividend income.  This was my best total in months.

While investments were light in October, my lone purchase of CSCO did increase my forward dividend income by almost $29.

Tallying up the October contributions from all categories, I saw almost $149 in new forward dividend income.   This puts me on the outskirts of $1K in forward dividend income being added for the year.

Only a couple of months left to make the best of 2020.  Here’s hoping you finish the year on a strong note as far as dividends are concerned.

 

Do you have any 2020 goals you plan to attack in the next two months?  Any portfolio clean up you wish to do prior to kicking off 2021?  Please share in the Comments!

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