With the end of March, we put a bow on the first quarter of 2022.  Just like most quarter-ending months, that means big dividend totals… or at least I hope so.

Coming into March 2022, the last time my Portfolio saw a record month for dividend income was 1 year ago… in March 2021.

March became my biggest dividend income month last year when Fastenal (FAST) shifted their 1st quarter dividend payment from February to March.  That shift is looking to be the norm now as FAST paid their 1st quarter dividend in March this time around as well.

So, did I achieve record dividend income this month?  You’re about to find out here in March’s dividend income report.  Here’s a preview…

I not only tallied a four-digit dividend total in March, I surpassed the $1.5K threshold as well… and absolutely set a new monthly best in the process!  I’ll give you the exact total shortly.

Unfortunately, YoY growth was limited and fell well short of my desired 15% target.  Did I even come close?  Well, I didn’t even reach a double-digit percentage, so chalk that up as a decent miss.

March marks the beginning of a 6-month dividend raise slowdown within my Portfolio.  After a record 10 dividend raises in February, I came back to Earth with a total of 3 dividend raises in March.  This sadly stunted my forward dividend income due to raises, but overall my March total still looked good thanks to an unexpectedly high boost percentage from one of my biggest dividend payers.

I had an uptick in Portfolio transactions in March.  I took the opportunity to purge a couple of high-yielding, but slow/no dividend growth stocks and re-deploy the proceeds.  Was I able to recoup all the lost dividend income?  You’ll know soon enough.

While my additional forward dividend income this month didn’t surpass that from last year at this time, good progress was still made in adding to my forward dividend income total.  I’ll let you know what kind of impact I was able to make.

Of course, I’ve got progress chart updates to share, too.  Monthly and Yearly dividend totals since I started my Portfolio in 2015 are available.

Let’s kick this report off… starting with my March dividend income.

 

Dividend Income

 

In March I raked in a record amount of $1,669.49 in dividends.  This was my first time topping $1.6K and it was almost $134 more than my previous monthly best.

YoY growth wasn’t nearly as spectacular.  By exceeding the $1,535.59 I collected in March of 2021, I posted 8.72% YoY growth.  This came up noticeably shy of my 15% monthly target.  However, the increase I recorded remains a solid number.

A total of 23 companies paid me a dividend in March.  Even better, eight dividend payers topped a $100 payout.

T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) narrowly led my dividend payers with a generous $146.54 dividend.  Another seven companies delivered a 3-digit dividend payment, too.  Six of my eight $100+ payers actually paid north of $120.

My smallest dividend payment came from NextEra Energy (NEE) at $6.47.  Microsoft (MSFT) wasn’t much farther ahead, paying $6.91.  Both of these stocks have moved higher in price since I initiated my position in them, leading to me defer the build out of these positions, and hence resulting in a dividend that isn’t climbing too fast.

The increased dividend amounts from Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), Amgen (AMGN), Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Visa (V) were helped by additional purchases over the past year.  One can see that I’ve been most active with AMGN.

The boost in my Main Street Capital (MAIN) dividend was primarily the result of an unexpected (for me at least) special dividend of $11.27.

Increased YoY amounts for all other companies were a result of dividend increases and reinvested dividends over the past year.  I added over $24 in YoY dividend gains from Aflac (AFL), more than $20 from BlackRock (BLK) and Broadcom (AVGO), and north of $19 from TROW and Union Pacific (UNP).  What a month!

A pair of stocks had payout reductions compared to last March: 3M Co. (MMM) and Gilead Sciences (GILD).  In both cases, this was due to trimming on my part.  Each stock has performed poorly from a price perspective over the past year, with slowing dividend growth to boot.

Two new dividend payers arrived in my Portfolio this March: Pinnacle West Capital (PNW) and NEE.  I bought both on the same day about 1 year ago.  Both were my first foray into Utility stocks in quite a while.

There are also a couple of stocks listed that no longer paid a dividend for my Portfolio as they did last March.  Let’s start with Starbucks (SBUX).  The removal of SBUX was the result of a shift in the timing of the dividend from March in 2021 (out of the ordinary) to February in 2022 (back to normal).  The absence of a dividend from TCF Financial (TCF) was due to my sale of the stock prior to the company being acquired by Huntington Bancshares (HBAN).

As usual, all my dividends got automatically reinvested into the stocks that paid them.  The additional forward dividend income boost that resulted from the reinvestment was $46.59.  That’s quite the boost from just reinvesting dividends!  This blew past my monthly $30 target in additional forward dividend income from reinvested dividends.

As a result of March’s reinvested dividends, I purchased over 14 new shares of stock.  This included over 2 shares of AFL and 1 share each of FAST, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), GILD and MAIN.

 

Dividend Raises

After a stellar February in terms of dividend raises (10!), March felt like a bit of a let down (only 3).  However, I knew it was coming.

March begins a 6-month window when I expect the quantity of dividend raises I receive each month to slow down.  Consequently, the additional forward dividend income I realize from my monthly raises will be smaller in the short-term.

Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t reach a triple-digit boost from dividend raises from time to time.  I just need that smaller number of stocks to deliver terrific dividend raises.  That was the case in May, 2021 when I only had 2 dividend raises, but recorded over $110 in new forward dividend income.

My first raise in March came from General Dynamics (GD).  This year’s dividend raise from GD of 5.88% was a little disappointing, as it fell short of the 8.18% boost from last year.  What it lacked from a dividend growth perspective though has been buoyed by some decent price appreciation from GD to start 2022 (up nearly 15%).

My best raise of the month was a little unexpected.  It came from my largest holding, Qualcomm (QCOM).  QCOM provided a 10.29% dividend bump.  This was unexpected since QCOM has been averaging much less in the recent past.  QCOM posted a 5.38% dividend growth rate over the past 5 years, and an even worse 3.45% over the past 3 years.  Because of this, I was expecting something much smaller than 10%.  Instead, with my largest holding declaring a double-digit dividend raise, my forward dividend income increased by a stellar $57.20.  In addition, the CEO has been talking about upper single-digit or lower double-digit dividend raises in the future.  I’d like to see that, for sure!

Rounding out my dividend raises for the month was Realty Income (O).  O delivered one of its small quarterly raises in March, announcing a 0.2% raise that increased my forward dividend income by 49 cents.

 

 

Adding up all the dividend raises from March, my forward dividend income increased by $72.59.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t reach the triple-digit level again this month.

On a happier note, this month’s forward dividend income boost due to raises was better than the $44.90 increase I notched from dividend raises last March.

I’d have to invest $2,975.00 at my Portfolio’s current average yield of 2.44% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.

Looking ahead to April, dividend raises will once again be limited.  I’m only expecting announcements from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Procter & Gamble (PG).  That’s it.  However, since both of these stocks are some of my larger dividend payers, any meaningful dividend raise should lead to healthy gains in my forward dividend income.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

Portfolio activity ticked up in March.  It was highlighted by me eliminating a pair of higher-yielding stocks from my Portfolio in W.P. Carey (WPC) and Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI).

WPC got the axe for poor dividend growth, while OHI was removed for the same plus weak price performance and poor dividend safety.

Three new stocks were also introduced into my Portfolio:  STORE Capital (STOR), VICI Properties (VICI) and Verizon (VZ).  These are some higher-yielding stocks that helped me recoup some of the lost dividend income from the WPC and OHI sales.  Unfortunately, I needed to invest some cash, too, to replace all the income.

I also scooped up some shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Merck & Co. (MRK) while I felt they were trading at attractive values.

All the details for these transactions can be found in the following two posts…

 

Recent Transactions – WPC, STOR, VICI, JPM, MRK

Recent Transactions – OHI & VZ

 

These seven transactions resulted in a net capital investment of $1,429.34.  With my two sales, I recorded a net long-term capital gain of $668.97 and a short-term capital loss of $9.41.

Unfortunately, my forward dividend income only increased by $6.07.  My investment dollars went towards replacing my dividend income rather than increasing it.

With two stocks exiting my Portfolio, but three new stocks coming in, the number of stocks in my Portfolio inched up by one to 56.

 

Tallying Up The Additional Forward Dividend Income

In 2022, 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 show 2021 totals as well, so that we can compare as the year progresses.  Another triple-digit month in March for forward dividend income is what I like to see!

 

 

My additional forward dividend income added up to $125.25 for March.  This came in shy of the $139.03 I posted last year, due to much lower numbers in my Investment of Capital category.

However, my Reinvested Dividends and Dividend Raises were noticeably stronger than last year, almost making up the difference.

For the 3rd month in a row, Dividend Raises provided the most additional forward dividend income for me, with Reinvested Dividends in 2nd each month.  I love seeing that organic growth.

My quarterly total of $563.44 is looking good, even though I’m off pace a bit compared to the same point in 2021.  Hopefully, I can stop using my investment cash to recoup lost dividend income from sales and use it to start boosting my monthly totals in Investment of Capital.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.  Did you notice?… Thanks to this month’s March dividend total, I had to adjust the Y-axis max from $1,600 to $1,700.  Oh yeah!

 

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.  I’m looking good at the quarter pole in 2022, but I’ll need to worker harder if I hope to reach $15K by year’s end.

 

 

Summary

I collected a record dividend total of just over $1,669 in March.  It had been a year since I set my last record income month, so it was nice to see.  YoY growth was a little underwhelming though at 8.7%.

My additional forward dividend income received a boost over $46 thanks to reinvesting my dividends.  This was my 3rd best monthly total ever, trailing only two months in 2020.

March delivered only 3 dividend raises.  This was sadly as expected as I began the start of a slowdown period for my Portfolio.  However, the limited number of raises didn’t stop me from adding close to $73 of additional forward dividend income from the raises.  This was primarily thanks to QCOM and its double-digit dividend raise.

I recorded seven Portfolio transactions in March – two sales and five purchases.  The sales resulted in a pair of stocks exiting my Portfolio: WPC and OHI.  Three of the five purchases established new stock positions within my Portfolio: welcome to STOR, VICI and VZ.  My total cash investment was a little over $1,429.  However, my forward dividend income only increased by about $6 as most of the investment was needed to account for the notable difference in yield between the stocks I sold and those I added.

Tallying the contributions from all sources, I added over $125 in additional forward dividend income for my Portfolio in March.  Another triple-digit addition works for me!  My Portfolio’s annual forward dividend income total finished the month at $14,825.35.

 

Did the first quarter-ending month of 2022 result in record dividend income for your portfolio?  With one quarter behind us, are you on pace to reach your dividend income goals in 2022?  Please share in the Comments!

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