Hey everyone.  Another month down in 2021, and more dividends collected!

My Portfolio recorded some nice gains in May, too, but the highlight in this report is the passive income, as always.

I feel like my Portfolio is back to firing on all cylinders.  The income is good, the YoY growth looks nice, and dividend raises feel solid again.  When everything is working together it’s a beautiful sight to behold.

One nice surprise this month was some unexpected pop from a pair of dividend raises.  Coming into the month, I was worried that I might possibly have zero dividend raises in May.  However, two raises were announced and they were both double-digit raises, which led to a triple-digit income boost.  I can’t wait to share those numbers.

I didn’t have many trades in May, but I did manage a couple near the end of the month.  It was a trim and a subsequent purchase (where I threw in some extra cash).  I’ll cover those soon, too.

I’m liking how my additional forward dividend income is shaping up in 2021.  Once again, I recorded gains from all categories: reinvested dividends, dividend raises and new capital investment.  In May, one of my categories surpassed its total from 2020.  Can you guess which category that was?  If not, you’ll find out shortly.

As always, there’s plenty to cover.  Let’s kick things off with this month’s dividend income, followed by a look at all the other dividend-related items from May.

 

Dividend Income

 

My Portfolio is creeping up on 4-digit dividend totals in non-quarter-ending months.  How awesome!  In May, I raked in a total of $931.33 in dividends.

YoY growth came in at 14.93%, when comparing this May’s dividend total to the $810.36 from May 2020.  This came up just shy of the 15% YoY growth I like to see, but I’ll round up and call it good.  🙂

A total of 15 companies paid me a dividend this May.  I had a couple of stocks deliver triple-digit payments, and all but one of the dividends exceeded the $25 mark.

AbbVie (ABBV) was my top dividend payer in May, sending me my largest dividend payment ever at $165.18.  Also easily cracking the $100 mark was Procter & Gamble, delivering $114.82.

My smallest dividend payment of the month came from Realty Income (O) at $18.64.  Considering that the dividend from O is a monthly one, it’s hard to be disappointed with that.

The increased dividend amounts from General Dynamics (GD), Lowe’s Companies (LOW) and Realty Income (O) 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 gain from ABBV was over $20, while those from PG, Fastenal (FAST) and Nexstar Media Group (NXST) were all over $10.  These gains were all organic (a combination of dividend raises and dividend reinvestment).  Other nice organic boosts of $5+ were achieved by Texas Instruments (TXN), Starbucks (SBUX) and Air Products & Chemicals (APD).  This entire group of stocks has provided terrific results for my Portfolio.

I only had one dividend payout reduction in May, and that came from Caterpillar (CAT).  The reduction was the result of a position trim I did about 6 months ago.  At the time I thought CAT was overvalued, however, that hasn’t stopped the stock from climbing.  It’s safe to say I was too early with my trim.

Sadly, I have no new dividend payers to report for May.  The stocks I have added to my Portfolio over the past year pay out their dividends in other months.

On a brighter note, I didn’t have any dividend payers disappear this May compared to last year.  Thus, achieving some good YoY growth was made a bit easier.

As usual, all my dividends got automatically reinvested into the stocks that paid them.  The resulting additional forward dividend income boost came in at $27.56.  This came up less than $1 short of last months’ total, but was better than the monthly $25 target I have.

With all the reinvested dividends from May, I purchased nearly 10 shares of stock (9.761 shares to be exact).  This included over 1 share of ABBV, FAST and Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI).

 

Dividend Raises

I came into May only looking at a pair of potential dividend raises – from Main Street Capital (MAIN) and LOW.

Just a few days into the month, MAIN announced their dividend, absent any raise.  So, I supposedly had to pin my hopes on LOW to deliver a dividend raise in order to avoid being shutout for the month.

Well, while I was waiting for a LOW announcement, Union Pacific (UNP) surprised me a bit with their raise announcement – 10.31% dividend boost.

UNP is not the most consistent with announcing dividend raises in a particular month.  However, a raise announced in May had been done before.

Not only was I fired up about the double-digit dividend raise, but I didn’t have to sweat whether LOW would come through with a raise of their own.

Happily, two weeks later, LOW did announce a dividend raise, and it was a doozy, too.  LOW announced a whopping 33.33% raise, easily surpassing any expectation I might have had.

Both UNP and LOW are top 10 positions in my Portfolio, so their double-digit raises had quite the impact on my additional forward dividend income in May.  Impressively, with just the two raises, I notched a triple-digit boost to my forward dividend income.  Wow!

 

 

This pair of dividend raises increased my forward dividend income by an amazing $110.09.  The $76.33 boost from LOW alone was my 2nd largest ever from a single raise (trailing only a $84.76 bump from T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) this past February).

I’d have to invest $4,849.78 at my Portfolio’s current average yield of 2.27% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.

Looking ahead, June could end up being my lightest month of the year for dividend raises.  While I should see a fair number of raise announcements, they’ll be smaller raises, or raises from some of my smaller Portfolio positions, leading to small forward dividend income boosts.  I expect to hear from UnitedHealth Group (UNH), as well as get the small quarterly boosts from O and W.P. Carey (WPC).  There could be an outside chance we hear something from CAT as well.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

Not much went on in May with regard to new investment.  However, late in the month I did trim one position.  I also used those sale proceeds and some cash to add to another position.

So, all totaled, it was only a pair of transactions.  I trimmed my 3M Co. (MMM) position after a couple of years of disappointing dividend growth, and continued to build up my Merck & Co. (MRK) holdings.

Here are the details for those moves…

 

Recent Transactions – MMM & MRK

 

Accounting for both transactions, it was a net investment of $310.51, and a boost to my forward dividend income of $18.80.

The number of stocks in my Portfolio remained at 52.

 

Tallying Up The Additional Forward Dividend Income

In 2021, I’ll continue tracking my additional forward dividend income generated each month from the trifecta of sources: reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and new capital investment.

I show 2020’s totals, too, so that we can compare as the year progresses.  The totals for 2021 are shaping up nicely.  Avoiding the negative numbers I encountered in 2020 certainly helps!

 

 

I continue to plug along in the $25-$30 range each month when it comes to Reinvested Dividends.  I anticipate I might end up with ~$325 in this category by the end of the year, but unless there is a big market collapse (allowing for reinvestment at lower prices), I’m certain I won’t surpass last year’s total of just over $400.

After a great month from Dividend Raises (triple digits!), what jumps out to me is that 2021’s total from Dividend Raises has already exceeded that from 2020.  Dividend raises are back, and it’s a wonderful thing.  During each of the past 3 years, this category has provided the largest contribution to my additional forward dividend income.  It appears that will be the case this year as well.  I’m hoping that I can see a $1K boost from Dividend Raises by the end of the year (which would be a new accomplishment).

Also, I continued this year’s streak of each month’s additional forward dividend income due to Dividend Raises being better than the previous year.  That’s 5 months and counting.  Easy comparisons for the next couple of months makes extending this streak a real possibility.

As for Investment of Capital, I’m glad to see that I’ve posted a positive number each month so far this year.  I’ve never gone an entire year without either a zero or negative number at least 3 times during the year.  Thus, if I can continue the streak I’m on, and end up positive for each month during the year, what an accomplishment it would be.  Of course, it would do wonders for my 2021 additional forward dividend income, too.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.  Another month of YoY growth… that’s 65 months straight.

 

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.  I’ve averaged nearly $1K a month in dividends to start the year.  After tallying next month’s dividends, I expect my average will be over that mark.

 

 

Summary

Real dividend progress continues to be made within my Portfolio.

I collected over $931 in dividends from 15 dividend payers.  Dividends from ABBV and PG led the way.

YoY dividend growth almost reached my 15% target level in May.

I once again reinvested all my dividends in May.  This provided a $27 boost to my additional forward dividend income.

Dividend raises came from only two of my stocks in May (thank you UNP & LOW).  However, with both stocks being top 10 positions in my Portfolio, and both announcing double-digit raises, they provided an outsized forward dividend income boost of $110.

Transaction activity was limited in May, but I did make a pair of moves.  I lightened up on MMM and added to MRK.  These transactions resulted in a net investment over $310, and nearly a $19 increase in my forward dividend income.

Adding up the contributions from all categories in May, I totaled over $156 in additional forward dividend income for my Portfolio.  This brings my current annual forward dividend income total to $12,965.60.  My Portfolio should cross $13K sometime in June!

 

Does your dividend income have you on pace to reach your annual dividend income goal?  Did you receive any impressive dividend raises in May?    Please let me know in the Comments!

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