From a Portfolio perspective, what a month it was!  In November, the stock market accelerated to new highs and my Portfolio followed suit.

But what about the dividends?  Well, those turned out pretty darn well, too.  No records, mind you, but solid dividend results all around… income, growth, raises…. you name it.

For the 3rd month in a row, my Portfolio saw positive contributions in all 3 of the categories that boost my forward dividend income.  Hopefully, those days of the dividend cuts and suspensions sabotaging my forward dividend income are in my rear view mirror.

Dividend raise season is heating up.  The first and last quarter of the each year are when we see the most dividend raise announcements.  It’s the best chance to boost that forward dividend income without making new capital investments.  An early, surprise dividend raise announcement from one of my holdings was the superstar in November.

I didn’t invest a lot of capital in November, but I did make a pair of purchases in the Healthcare sector… one of which introduced a new holding to my Portfolio.  Of course, new dividend income comes along with those purchases, so I’ll fill you in on that.

Let’s get to it!  Here are my dividends results for November…

 

Dividend Income

 

Let the $800+ per month streak begin!  I recorded a welcome dividend income total of $857.20 in November.  On top of that, YoY growth beat my target goal of 15%, with solid 15.99% growth when comparing this November’s dividend total to the $739.00 from November 2019.

A total of 15 companies paid me a dividend in November.  Even better, a couple of them managed to deliver triple-digit dividend amounts.

AbbVie (ABBV) was my top dividend payer this month, sending me $146.37.  ABBV is already my the top dividend payer in my Portfolio, and that distinction should easily remain, as my next ABBV dividend is slated to increase over 10% after the company’s announced dividend raise in October.

Also notching a triple-digit payment for me this month was Procter & Gamble (PG), after it delivered $103.17.  PG hasn’t participated much during the recent market rally.  It’s been trading in the $135-$145 range since August.  However, it’s a defensive stock, and it’s time to shine should be during any market pullback we might experience in the coming months.

You’ll see I had plenty of stocks paying around $50 in dividends in November.  I like seeing roughly-equal dividend payments being delivered from a diversified list of payers.

The increased dividend amounts from ABBV,  General Dynamics (GD) and Caterpillar (CAT) 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 YoY dividend gains from Fastenal (FAST) and Nexstar Media Group (NXST) were both over $10, and all organic (combination of dividend raises and dividend reinvestment).

I did have a pair of dividend payout reductions in November.  The Hormel Foods (HRL) reduction was due to a partial sale of my position back at the start of the pandemic.  HRL was fairly resilient at the time, and I sold some and used the proceeds to invest in other stocks I’d been watching that presented favorable entry points.  The Realty Income (O) reduction was due to my REIT trimming over the past year.

Somewhat surprisingly, I didn’t have any new dividend payers this year compared to last November.  I’ll see if I can rectify this by the same time next year.  🙂

For the 2nd month in a row, I didn’t have any stocks that no longer paid me a dividend.  This too is somewhat surprising, as I’m usually making small tweaks here and there and they make themselves evident during checks like this.

As usual, I reinvested all dividends into the stocks that paid them, resulting in an additional forward dividend income boost of $27.39.  While I didn’t hit the $30 level like last month, the recent rising stock prices made this more difficult.  However, I did surpass the $25 target I have on a monthly basis.

As a result of the reinvested dividends, I purchased over 10.2 shares of stock in November.  This includes over 1 full share of ABBV, FAST, and Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI).

 

Dividend Raises

‘Tis the season for dividend raises, and as announcements heat up I was happy to notch 5 dividend raises in November – one more than I recorded in October.

Not only that, those 5 dividend raises resulted in a triple-digit boost to my forward dividend income… my best total since February.

Air Lease (AL) was my first stock to announce a raise in November.  It was a 6.67% raise, which was a slowdown from past raises.  However, considering all the heartache the airline industry has endured as a result of the pandemic, this felt generous.

A couple days later came a raise announcement from Automatic Data Processing (ADP).  The ADP raise was 2.20% – their smallest since 2015.  ADP’s business has also been hit by the pandemic, as their revenue saw a hit with the subsequent rise in unemployment.  This raise was my smallest of the month, resulting in the smallest boost to my forward dividend income as well.

Next came an early, surprise raise from Aflac (AFL)… and it was massive.  AFL raised their dividend 17.86%, effective with the March payment.  AFL would normally raise in February, resulting in an increase in their March dividend payment.  However, this raise came a quarter early.  Since AFL is one of my larger holdings, the raise resulted in an outstanding boost to my forward dividend income – $62.38.  That’s quite a punch from a single raise.

Another holding announcing a double-digit dividend raise for me in November was Nike (NKE).  NKE raised 12.24%, which led to a $15.69 boost to my forward dividend income.  This raise percentage is on par with those from Nike the past few years.

Finally, HRL wrapped up my dividend raise announcements for November.  HRL announced a 5.38% raise.  I believe this to be their smallest dividend raise since 2009.

 

 

These 5 dividend raises increased my forward dividend income by $100.93.  This was my best total since February, and my 3rd triple-digit monthly boost of 2020.

I’d have to invest $4,153.50 at my Portfolio’s current average yield of 2.43% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.

Looking ahead to December, I’ve got more raise announcements expected.  I hope to hear at least 4 dividend raise announcements.  I’m expecting a couple of very small quarterly raises from W.P. Carey (WPC) and O (about 0.2%), but also a pair of annual raises from Eastman Chemical (EMN) and Broadcom (AVGO).  EMN actually already made a raise announcement a couple of days ago, but I’ll save that for next month’s report.  As for AVGO, they’ve delivered some monstrous dividend raises over the past few years, so I’m interested to see if they continue that in this challenging year of 2020.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

I made a pair of purchases in the Healthcare sector in November.  In fact, both were biotech companies – Amgen (AMGN) and Gilead Sciences (GILD).

AMGN was a new Portfolio position, while the GILD purchase bolstered an existing position.

Most of the new capital went into AMGN, with a token amount directed toward GILD.

You can read all about these November transactions in the following post…

Recent Buy – AMGN & GILD

In total, I made an investment of $1,504.82.  Additionally, my forward dividend increased by $46.56 thanks to the share additions.

With the introduction of AMGN to my Portfolio, my number of holdings rose to 49.

 

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.

 

 

Once again, positive numbers in all 3 categories led to a nice monthly total.  That’s 3 months running… something not done since the February-April time frame.  Summing it all up, November’s boost to forward dividend income was $174.88.

Dividend Raises led the charge for the 2nd month in a row, and it leads for the entire year as well.  Nice totals were registered from the Reinvested Dividends and Investment of Capital categories as well.

Reinvested Dividends still has a chance to reach $400 by year’s end.  However, those stock gains posted in November may put a damper on that, as I’ll be reinvesting at higher prices, leading to fewer shares purchased, and thus a smaller boost in additional forward dividend income.

I surpassed $1,100 of additional forward dividend income for 2020 already.  A few months back I didn’t think I’d reach that mark.  Now I’ve passed that level and have the month of December to push that total even higher.  $1,200 could be a possibility.  This is nowhere near the $1,500+ from 2019, but considering all the headwinds in 2020, I’ll gladly take it.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.  November should be the start of more than $800 every month moving forward.  Glorious!

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.  Last year’s dividend total was eclipsed in November.  Now it’s time to pad the 2020 total in December!  I was trying to reach $12K in dividend income this year, but will fall a bit short – I’m projecting I’ll be close to $11.6K.

 

 

Summary

It was another terrific month of dividends in November.  Not only did I rake in hundreds of dollars of dividend income on double-digit YoY growth, but I noted a handful of dividend raises, and made a couple of small purchases, too.

I collected over $857 in dividends from 15 different dividend payers.  YoY growth bested my monthly 15% target by ending up at essentially 16%.

Forward dividend income due to reinvested dividends remained strong despite ever-increasing stock prices.  Year-to-date totals in this category were raised by $27 as a result of reinvestment in November.

I notched 5 dividend raises in November, one better than last month.  The raises resulted in a triple-digit boost of $101 to my additional forward dividend income.  AFL did most of the work here.

While investments weren’t large in November, my purchases of AMGN and GILD did increase my forward dividend income by almost $47.

Tallying up the November contributions from all categories, I saw almost $175 in additional forward dividend income.   This puts me over $1.1K in additional forward dividend income for the year with a shot at $1.2K if next month is half as favorable as November was.

One month to go until we put a bow on 2020 dividend income.  I hope all you dividend investors out there finish 2020 on a strong note.

 

Have you been able to post positive portfolio results in 2020 despite the pandemic headwinds?  Are you close to achieving one or more of your 2020 portfolio goals?  Please share in the Comments!

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