For my dividend Portfolio, 2021 has thus far shown a marked improvement compared to 2020 with regard to all things dividends.  My dividend income will soon pass last year’s total, YoY growth has improved, and so have dividend raises.

It’s hard not to like what’s transpired.  But the year is not over yet.  This final quarter provides me with a chance to continue the momentum, surpass some of the goals I established for the year, and set myself up for continued growth in 2022.

So, how did I do with regard to kicking off the final quarter of 2021?  We are about to find out!

Dividend income nearly reached a four-digit level on the back of outstanding YoY growth.  Could this be the last time I have a sub-$1K dividend income month?

The number of dividend raises I received in October were cut in half compared to last month.  However, my forward dividend income due to raises was better.  I’ll share how that came to be.

Portfolio transactions were infrequent this month, but the transactions made were purchases, so the Portfolio continued to grow.  I added to a couple of my existing positions in an effort to make them a more substantial part of my Portfolio.  I’ll let you know which stocks those were very soon.

Thanks to my reinvested dividends, dividend raises and new capital investment, my forward dividend income advanced yet again by a triple-digit amount in October… keeping my monthly streak in 2021 alive.  As always, I’ll break down which categories contributed the most to that forward dividend income total.

Near the end of the post, I’ll provide my updated monthly and annual progress charts.  With the year nearing its conclusion, it becomes very interesting to see where I am in relation to last year.

Let’s get to it.  We’ll start with this October’s dividend income.

 

Dividend Income

 

In October, I collected a total of $998.87 in dividends… oh so close to $1K!  Perhaps I should have checked the couch cushions for that remaining $1.13.  Oh well, $1K will have to wait for now.

While I came up a bit shy of $1K, it wasn’t due to a lack of YoY growth.  Growth was a staggering 27.29% when comparing this October’s dividend total to the $784.71 from October, 2020.  This easily exceeded my monthly 15% target and it was my 2nd best monthly YoY growth number in 2021.

A total of 20 companies paid me a dividend in October.  Somewhat amazingly, I almost got to $1K in dividends with only one $100+ dividend payer this month.  While I wasn’t top heavy with any dividend payments, all dividend payments were north of $19, and only two were shy of $30.  So, lots of significant contributions this month.

Altria Group (MO) led my payers with a $110.59 dividend.  RPM International (RPM) nearly crossed the $100 level as well after a dividend raise from earlier in the month.  However, I’ll have to wait a couple of quarters and rely on reinvested dividends before RPM puts me over that $100 threshold.

My smallest dividend payment came from monthly payer Realty Income (O).  This dividend may get a bit smaller once O spins off Orion Office REIT (ONL) within the next two weeks.  We’ll have to wait and see.

The increased dividend amounts from Cisco Systems (CSCO) and 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 nearly $13 in YoY dividend gains from MO, nearly $9 from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), as well as over $6 from RPM and Illinois Tool Works (ITW).

Unfortunately, 3 stocks posted a payout reduction when comparing to last October.  Those stocks were W.P. Carey (WPC), Gentex (GNTX) and Air Lease (AL).  It was my own doing though.  I trimmed WPC this past April as I reduced my REIT weighting within my Portfolio.  I trimmed GNTX back in March when it looked a bit pricey.  Lastly, I trimmed AL multiple times recently (due to questionable dividend safety and lackluster performance) before finally eliminating the position in September.

Where I really made strides this month was in the arrival of new dividend payers.  I have 4 new payers from 4 different sectors.  Merck & Co. (MRK) made the strongest debut, but payments from Omnicom Group (OMC), OGE Energy (OGE) and Medical Properties Trust (MPW) were solid as well.

Thankfully, I only had 1 dividend payer disappear this October compared to last year.  That stock was Sysco (SYY).  I sold Sysco since it was one of my smaller positions and I didn’t see myself adding to the position in the short-term due to a strong price run-up.   I’d consider adding SYY again should the price be right.

As usual, all my dividends got automatically reinvested into the stocks that paid them.  The resulting additional forward dividend income boost from this was $32.10.  This was a solid total, and my 4th best total for any month this year… easily better than my $25 monthly target.  Speaking of that target, I may need to boost that to $30+/mo. in 2022, as I find myself exceeding the $25 target on a regular basis now, even with elevated stock prices.

With all the reinvested dividends from October, I purchased over 14 new shares of stock.  This included over 2 shares of MO, and over 1 share of RPM, OGE, GNTX and MPW.

 

Dividend Raises

Coming into the month, I was planning on four raise announcements and hoping for a fifth from AbbVie (ABBV).  Well, I got four, and that included ABBV.  So, which company didn’t deliver as expected?

It was Pinnacle West Capital (PNW) that was ultra quiet.  The company has announced October dividend raises quite consistently over the past several years.  I still haven’t seen anything here in early November.  I’m getting a bit worried that bad news is coming on the dividend front (i.e no raise, or even worse, a cut), especially given the poor stock performance over the past month on news that regulators are not going to allow the rate increases PNW was seeking.  This could crimp any growth plans that PNW had.  The only good news for me here… PNW is my smallest Portfolio position, so dividend news from PNW (good or bad) will have minimal impact on my dividend income.

Enough about dividend raises that didn’t materialize… let’s see those that did.

The month started with a raise announcement from RPM.  It was a 5.26% boost.  That’s a bit worse than RPM’s 3-year, 5-year and 10-year averages, and lower than last year’s 5.56% increase.

My next raise was the worst of the month.  VF Corp. (VFC) announced a one cent per share increase, or a 2.04% raise… very disappointing, but not too unexpected.  Sadly, this was a bit lower than the 2.08% boost from last year.

My best raise of October was delivered by Visa (V).  V announced a terrific 17.18% raise… well above the 6.67% raise from 2020, and closer to the average provided years before that.

The last raise announcement came from ABBV.  A 8.46% raise was announced.  This was a cool down from the 10.17% raise in 2020, but large enough to keep me satisfied with the increase.  With ABBV being my largest dividend payer, the solid dividend bump led to an equally solid forward dividend income boost of $57.16 – easily my largest single boost from October.

All in all, I’d have to say it was a mixed bag with respect to the four dividend raises.  Three of the four increases were smaller than the ones from 2020, which wasn’t a terrific year for raises overall.  However, the smaller raises weren’t a big step down in raise percentages in most cases, and coupled with the big bump from V, I managed to record a bigger forward dividend income boost in total than I did in 2020.

 

 

 

Adding up all the dividend raises from October, my forward dividend income increased by $98.72.  Unfortunately, I again came up just shy of a major threshold ($100 in this case).  What’s going on here?  It’s not a conspiracy, I was just a little unlucky.  I take that total though.  While I did come up shy of $100, the total keeps me within range of reaching $1K from dividend raises in 2021.

I’d have to invest $4,273.59 at my Portfolio’s current average yield of 2.31% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.

Looking ahead, I’m expecting 5 dividend raises in November.  I expect to hear from Automatic Data Processing (ADP), Nike (NKE), Hormel Foods (HRL), Aflac (AFL) and MRK.  Hopefully, ADP does much better than the 2.2% from last year.  I can’t see AFL announcing another 17.86% raise like last year, but if it can stay in the double-digits, that would be awesome.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

I invested some cash in October.  I was able to make a pair of purchases – one at the beginning of the month and one at the end.

Both purchases were of stocks that are existing Portfolio positions.  This bolstered a couple of my smaller positions, both of which I established in the last year.

It was AMGN and OMC that I purchased, investing $600+ into each, with OMC getting slightly more of the invested capital.

Having just the two transactions marked a significant slowdown in my activity from the past few months.

All the details for these 2 purchases can be found in the following pair of posts…

 

Recent Buy – AMGN

Recent Buy – OMC

 

The two purchases resulted in a net investment of $1,325.10.  With AMGN yielding over 3.3% and OMC yielding over 4% at my time of purchase, my forward dividend income increased by a tidy sum of $49.12 – an effective 3.71% yield.

Since my investments were contained to stocks already within my Portfolio, the number of stocks in my Portfolio remained 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 are looking good… $1K from Dividend Raises and $2K overall are still in play!

 

 

Another terrific month of results in October.  Solid contributions from all 3 sources allowed me to record $179.94 in additional forward dividend income.

I also pushed my streak of triple-digit months to 10.  It would be nice to wrap up the year with all 12 months exceeding that $100 total.

Dividend Raises led the way in October by boosting my forward dividend income by $98.72.  $1K from Dividend Raises for all of 2021 is still a possibility.  I need to average about $73.50/mo. over the final 2 months to hit that target.  It’s going to be close!  Can I keep this up for 2 more months?  I surely hope so.

Investment of Capital was next in line, contributing $49.12 to my forward dividend income.  That was followed by another $32.10 from Reinvested Dividends.

I still have a shot at all 3 categories delivering a combined $2K for the year.  I need to average about $135/mo. the rest of the way to reach that mark.  I like my odds here.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.  Could I have gotten any closer to that $1K line in October… I don’t think so.

 

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.  I should easily surpass last year’s dividend total around mid-November, then it’s all gravy after that.  Maybe I reach $13,400?

 

 

Summary

What can I say?  Those dividends continued to roll in at a nice clip in October.  My annual dividend goals are in sight now.

In October, I raked in just about $1K in dividends.  Not to mention, my YoY growth was north of 27%!

All dividends were once again reinvested into the stocks that paid them.  This led to more than $32 of additional forward dividend income due to reinvested dividends.

My Portfolio had 4 stocks that announced dividend raises in October.  My largest percentage raise came from Visa (V), but the biggest boost to my forward dividend income came from AbbVie (ABBV).  All totaled, the 4 raises added nearly $99 to my forward dividend income.

Portfolio transactions were limited in October (only two purchases).  My total cash investment was roughly $1,325.  However, this provided over a $49 bump to my forward dividend income.

Tallying the contributions from all sources, I totaled almost $180 in additional forward dividend income for my Portfolio.  My Portfolio’s current annual forward dividend income total stands at $13,767.20.

 

Have you already passed your dividend total from 2020?  Or will this happen in November?  Have you already reached some of your annual portfolio goals?  Please share in the Comments!

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