As we prepare to wind down the last few weeks of summer, it’s time to report on my monthly dividend income for August. Good progress was made on all dividend fronts this month, as you will soon see.
Dividend income approached $1K, but came up a bit short. YoY dividend growth, however, beat out the 15% target I have.
Dividend raises were a bit of a surprise. I had one company raise after they froze their dividend last year. Meanwhile another company initiated a dividend altogether. I’ll share those companies shortly.
Transaction activity was elevated in August as I shuffled stocks at bottom end of my Portfolio to a minor degree. One new stock entered my Portfolio, while another exited. Keep reading to hear about which stocks those were.
As for my additional forward dividend income, it was a terrific month of progress there as all three categories (reinvested dividends, dividend raises and new capital investment) delivered solid totals, producing my 2nd best month of 2021. The contribution from new capital investment led the way, despite not much in the way of new capital investment. How can that be? Stick around to find out.
Let’s get to some details. As usual, we’ll start with this month’s dividend income…
Dividend Income
For August, my dividend total came up shy of $1K, at $968.15. I’m hoping this is the last time I’ll collect less than $1K during the mid-quarter months.
YoY growth came in at 16.77% when comparing this August’s dividend total to the $829.14 from August, 2020. I love seeing YoY growth results that are better than my 15% target.
A total of 16 companies paid me a dividend this August. All but 5 stocks managed to pay me at least $49. Two of my stocks, AbbVie (ABBV) and Procter & Gamble (PG), delivered well over $100.
ABBV led my payers with a $167.01 dividend, my largest regular dividend ever. On the opposite end, I saw relative newcomer Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) deliver my smallest amount for August at $8.33.
The increased dividend amounts from Lowe’s Companies (LOW), General Dynamics (GD) and Realty Income (O) were helped by additional purchases over the past year.
Increased YoY amounts for the other companies were a result of dividend increases and reinvested dividends over the past year. I recorded over $22 in YoY dividend gains from ABBV, primarily due to its nice yield and a double-digit raise last year. Other nice organic boosts included adding over $15 from Nexstar Media Group (NXST), nearly $13 from PG, and over $11 from Fastenal (FAST).
Sadly, I had 1 stock that posted a payout reduction when comparing this August to last August. That stock was Caterpillar (CAT). The reduction was due to me trimming my position a bit last December (not a dividend cut).
August brought only 1 new dividend payer – BMY. This was my 1st dividend from BMY. The dividend should grow significantly next quarter after I added some shares this month.
Happily, I can report that I didn’t have any dividend payers disappear this August compared to last year.
As usual, all my dividends got automatically reinvested into the stocks that paid them. The resulting additional forward dividend income boost from this was $28.45. This bested the monthly $25 target I have.
With all the reinvested dividends from August, I came close to purchasing 10 new shares of stock. This included over 1 share of ABBV, FAST, and Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI).
Dividend Raises
Coming into August, I had two potential dividend raises that I was expecting – Illinois Tool Works (ITW) and Altria Group (MO). As it turned out, I received twice as many.
Additional dividend raises is always a nice surprise. This time they came from Main Street Capital (MAIN) and Merck & Co. (MRK) spinoff Organon & Co. (OGN).
Unfortunately, none of raises were of the double-digit variety, so the boosts to my forward dividend income were average.
Anyway, MAIN kicked off my raises for the month with a 2.44% increase. This was MAIN’s first raise since May of 2019 – over two years! While I wish the raise could have been bigger, I was happy to just have the dividend freeze be over.
Next came my largest raise of the month. It was a 7.02% boost from ITW. This led to my biggest income boost of the month as well at $20. The raise was about half a percent larger than the 6.54% raise that ITW delivered last year, but still noticeably lower than ITW’s longer-term dividend growth rates.
Surprising me a bit was the initiation of a dividend by OGN. It was a surprise considering how soon it came after completion of its spinoff from MRK. OGN started its dividend at 28 cents per share, which offered about a 3.74% yield. I’ll be collecting my one and only OGN dividend in September, as I recently exited my small position given that it was so small and that I didn’t have any plans to add shares.
Lastly came the raise announcement from MO. The company delivered a 4.65% raise, which was nearly double the 2.38% raise from last year. Given that MO is one of my bigger dividend payers, the average boost resulted in nearly $20 of additional forward dividend income.
Dividend raises in August increased my forward dividend income by $59.55. This was rather close to my combined total from June & July.
I’d have to invest $2,634.96 at my Portfolio’s current average yield of 2.26% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.
Looking ahead, September raises seem to be lining up rather nicely, with most expected to be in the latter half of the month. I expect to hear from Microsoft (MSFT), Texas Instruments (TXN), Lockheed Martin (LMT), and OGE Energy (OGE). A late-month announcement from Starbucks (SBUX) is a possibility as well. There are also the small quarterly raises from Realty Income (O) and W.P. Carey (WPC) that I’m expecting around mid-month. I suspect the largest dividend boost from the group might come from TXN, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Dividends Due To New Investment
My Portfolio activity heated up in August, as I made more transactions than I normally do.
With the transactions I attempted to minimize the size of one of my positions with poor dividend safety, and to build up a few of my smaller positions with the proceeds.
I made 10 moves in total – 7 purchases and 3 sales.
Among the moves I made, I established a new position in Omnicom Group (OMC), but said goodbye to my Organon & Co. (OGN) position.
I ended up investing a little over $1K, but added a good chunk to my forward dividend income.
All the details for these 10 transactions can be found in the following posts…
Recent Transactions – OMC & AMGN
Recent Transactions – AL & OMC
Recent Transactions – AL, OMC, LMT, AMGN, BMY, OGN
The 10 total transactions resulted in a net investment of $1,029.38, and an increase of $132.16 to my forward dividend income.
While OMC was a new addition to my Portfolio, the sale of OGN resulted in its elimination. Thus, the number of stocks in my Portfolio held steady at 54.
Tallying Up The Additional Forward Dividend Income
In 2021, I’ve continued 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 being put up for 2021 continue to look good. Avoiding the negative numbers I encountered in 2020 certainly helps!
Nice contributions from all 3 sources led to my 2nd best month of the year with regard to additional forward dividend income. My August total of $220.16 was better than my June & July totals combined. Sweet!
The majority of my boost came from Investment of Capital. However, I didn’t really invest too much capital during the month – just a bit over $1K. What happened was that my trim of a lower-yielding position in Air Lease (AL) was followed up by me reinvesting the proceeds into several higher-yielding stocks: OMC, LMT, AMGN, BMY. So, the boost came from a strategic swap within my Portfolio.
Anyway, that’s 8 months and counting of additional triple-digit income! I’m really hoping to extend that streak through the end of 2021. With some good months for Dividend Raises coming up, I like my chances of succeeding.
Speaking of Dividend Raises, another good month in August has kept open the possibility of $1K for the year. I need to average about $85/mo. from Dividend Raises for the next 4 months in order to reach $1K for the year. I came close back in 2018 when I reached an annual total of ~$924.
If I reach $1K from Dividend Raises, I might have a shot at $2K when adding up all 3 additional forward dividend income sources. That would be special as well.
Also note, my current 2021 total of $1,355.95 in additional forward dividend income has already surpassed the $1,230.43 total from all of 2020. Let’s keep this going!
Progress Charts
The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page. YoY dividend growth in August continues its steady climb.
On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like. Look at that… in 8 months this year I’ve been able to surpass my entire 2018 dividend total.
Summary
More dividend progress was notched in August. We are now two-thirds of the way through 2021 and I like how my annual totals are looking.
In August, I raked in over $968 in dividends on the heels of nearly 16.8% YoY growth.
As usual, I reinvested all my dividends into the stocks that paid them. This provided a $28+ boost to my additional forward dividend income.
I received four dividend raises in August. Unfortunately, my largest raise was just north of 7%. However, the resulting boosts to my forward dividend income looked good at close to $60.
Portfolio transactions heated up in August, as I focused on improving the dividend safety within my Portfolio, and increasing the size of several smaller positions. I have a new Portfolio stock in OMC, but no longer have OGN. Total investment was over $1K, but a strategic swap led to most of the $132 of additional forward dividend income.
Adding up the August contributions from all sources, I totaled over $220 in additional forward dividend income for my Portfolio. My Portfolio’s current annual forward dividend income total stands at $13,392.37.
What stood out in your Portfolio in August? A hefty dividend payment? A monster dividend raise? Please share in the Comments!
I have updated the Portfolio & Dividends pages in conjunction with this monthly update.
You are so close to never seeing a 3 digit monthly payout again, November is going to be close and can’t wait for your report out then.
So true, SDG. It’s possible October is my last time I’m short of a 4-digit month, but I’ve got work to do to make sure next April doesn’t turn out that way, too.
Regardless, the progress has been good and I’m excited for yet another milestone in the coming year.
You will be over $1K next mid-quarter month for sure. Congrats! Nice ABBV payout too! 🙂
I think so, too, MDD. If solid dividend raises come in from TXN, SBUX and ABBV over the next couple of months, then $1K+ by November should be in the cards.
The ABBV payout is getting big… it’s my largest. Given ABBV’s high yield and generous dividend raises as well, their payout has been running away from my others. I’ll have to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t become an oversized payout in my Portfolio from a dividend weighting perspective.
Great month. Just shy of $1000.00 you will get that soon. Definitely looking forward to the final raises of the year then seeing how next years raises shape out. If you can get $1000.00 in dividend raises that would be sweet. Keep it up.
At least $1K in all months should hopefully start sometime next year. It will be awesome, Doug.
I’m hoping for some strong raises to close out 2021, too. I’ve got my eyes on $1K in additional forward dividend income from Dividend Raises in 2021 as a target. I’d like to hit the target given that the start to this year has been good enough to put me in striking distance.
That’s awesome that your August dividends are pushing on the door of $1k. Man monthly streak of triple digit forward dividend increases is really nice and that $200+ in August alone certainly helped. Great month and you’re going to crush it in the last 4 months of 2021. Hard to believe we’re already into the last 1/3 of the year.
Hey, JC! I’m truly getting close to $1K in dividend income in every month. Next year looks like the time… It will be a nice milestone.
My streak of triple-digit forward dividend income gains each month this year has been awesome. I figured I’d miss out during at least one month during the summer, but I just made it a couple of times to extend the streak. Now it’s looking like a possibility to extend the streak through December if those dividend raises come in strong during these final months of 2021 – which seems like a realistic possibility.
I’m looking forward to the final 1/3 of the year. Best of luck to you in achieving some of your annual goals during this time, too.
wow great month Paul.
jealous of those pg and apd payouts. I feel like I need to grow our pg position after that 10% raise this year.
You added alot to your forward income with that trio of combinations. Awesome stuff! keep it up
cheers
Thanks, Rob.
I’m glad to see PG paying a solid triple-digit amount for me these days. I’d like to see APD at that level, too, but need the price to drop further so I can add. 🙂
My forward dividend income has been growing nicely this year. As the days go by I’m getting more optimistic about reaching $1K from dividend raises and $2K overall in 2021.
Solid performance as usual, ED. And you now have double-digit % increases from MSFT and TXN as well! 🙂
Thank you, LWD. August was a good month for me, for sure. I like the progress my dividend Portfolio has been making in 2021.
Yes, already a couple of strong dividend increases in September for me. Those double-digit increases from MSFT and TXN were tremendous. I’m hoping that LMT will follow suit later this month.