Alright, after a somewhat disappointing July, it’s time to check out my dividend progress in August and determine if things are back on track.

I’m happy to report that they are!

My handful of troubles from July are in my rear-view mirror and I hope the results from August portend a strong finish to the year, despite what may be transpiring in the stock market.

I’d say it was good news all around with respect to dividends in my Portfolio this month.

Dividend totals topped $1K once again, but my how much?  Year-over-Year (YoY) dividend growth rebounded nicely in August, but did it exceed my 15% target?  You’ll know soon enough on both accounts.

With many stock prices retreating this year, my reinvested dividends have been providing a good chunk of forward dividend income each month.  I can share now that I surpassed my $30 monthly target in August, but stick around for the final number.

My Portfolio had decent dividend raises in August, and easily provided double-digit forward dividend income.  It was a wonderful snap back from single-digit numbers in July.

As for purchases, I had bookend buys early and late in the month – 3 on each end for 6 total purchases… I was fairly active.  The forward dividend income from these buys provided a nice boost.

So, it was solid forward dividend income contributions from all 3 of my sources (reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of capital).  As a group, they easily provided triple-digit forward income in August, but did they push me over $200 for the month?  Find out shortly.

The sun was shining in August (as expected in summer) and it shined on my Portfolio, too.  I feel like dividend performance within my Portfolio is back to normal.

Let’s check out the details and you can decide for yourself.  We begin with my August dividend income…

 

Dividend Income

 

I finished August by collecting a total of $1,152.34 in dividends.  Topping that $1K threshold never gets old.  I was thrilled to clear $1K by a healthy margin, too.

Happily, YoY growth was positive this month after being negative for the first time ever in July.  In August, I recorded 19.02% YoY growth after exceeding the $968.15 that I collected in August of 2021.  No special dividends to trip me up this time!

A total of 17 companies paid me a dividend in August.  Four of my dividend payers managed a triple-digit dividend, which is great.  This included two new stocks in Lowe’s Companies (LOW) and Fastenal (FAST).  FAST delivered an even C-note.

AbbVie (ABBV) led my dividend payers by providing $188.72, the largest regular dividend I’ve ever collected.  Procter & Gamble (PG) provided a nice triple-digit dividend as well, at $124.19.

My smallest dividend was $20.69 from Realty Income (O).    I was ecstatic that every dividend this month came in north of $20.  The $24.43 dividend from National Retail Properties (NNN) was my next smallest dividend for August.

The increased dividend amounts from Starbucks (SBUX) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) were each helped by one or more additional purchases over the past year.

Increased YoY amounts for all other companies were a result of dividend increases and reinvested dividends over the past year.  I added over $25 in YoY dividend gains from LOW, more than $23 from Nexstar Media Group (NXST), over $21 from ABBV, as well as over $11 from FAST.  The increases from LOW and FAST were what pushed them into the $100 club, and almost got NXST there.

There were no stocks with a payout reduction compared to the same month a year ago.  I’m always thrilled to report that… it doesn’t happen too often as I re-shape my Portfolio on a fairly regular basis and those trims work against me.

I had a pair of new dividend payers this August.  Verizon Communications (VZ) delivered the larger dividend of the two, at $32.35.  This was followed by the aforementioned $24.43 from NNN.

One stock no longer paid a dividend for my Portfolio this August – Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI).  I purged OHI from my Portfolio last March given its lack of dividend growth and its questionable dividend safety.

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 a solid $32.91.  The middle month of each quarter usually provides my smallest forward income boost from reinvested dividends.  So, to top $30 feels like an accomplishment.  Falling stock prices were working to my advantage in that respect.  Almost 25% of this month’s forward dividend income boost from reinvested dividends came from ABBV.  Three other stock dividends that I reinvested were able to boost my forward dividend income by at least $2 each (PG, LOW & FAST).

As a result of August’s reinvested dividends, I purchased over 11 new shares of stock.  This included close to 2 shares of FAST, and over 1 share of ABBV.

 

Dividend Raises

Dividend raises are starting to pick up now that summer is approaching its end.  We are about to enter the half of the year I look forward to the most in my dividend Portfolio.

However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves… before we move on, what happened in August?

Well, while I notched only one more raise in August (4) than I had in July (3), the resulting forward dividend income boost was much better.

I had 3 raises announced in the first week of the month, then had to wait until the end of the month for the final one.

Only 1 of the 4 raises entered double-digit territory.  However, a couple of the others provided at least a $20+ forward dividend income boost due to my relatively large positions in those stocks.

The first raise of the month was my smallest in terms of both the percentage increase (2.33%) and the resulting boost to my forward dividend income ($9.29).  The raise came from Main Street Capital (MAIN).  It will be effective with the company’s October dividend payment.

Next up was my double-digit raise.  Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) announced a 10.71% raise that provided $27.91 in forward dividend income.  I was happy to see this raise exceed 10%.  Given the tough year SWKS has had I expected a raise in the upper single-digit range.

The raise from Illinois Tool Works (ITW) was as expected.  The 7.38% raise settled right in the 6%-9% range I was expecting.  This raise resulted in my forward dividend income rising by $23.04.

The final August raise came from one of my Top 10 dividend payers, Altria Group (MO).  Its 4.44% raise, or 4 cents per share boost, was just what I was expecting given last year’s raise and the environment MO is operating in.

Coming into the month, I thought I might see a dividend raise announcement from VICI Properties (VICI), but it seems that will slip into September.

 

 

Adding up the four dividend raises from August, my forward dividend income increased by $81.41.  Much better!  The contributions from the top 3 stocks was fairly even, with the last one from MAIN nearly reaching double-digits.

This month’s total eclipsed the $59.55 from August, 2021.  The SWKS dividend landing in August this year instead of July was a difference maker.

I’d have to invest $2,938.99 at my Portfolio’s yield of 2.77% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.

Looking ahead to September, I’ve got a shot at receiving 9 dividend raises.  This includes announcements from VICI, Microsoft (MSFT), Texas Instruments (TXN), Lockheed Martin (LMT), OGE Energy (OGE), Starbucks (SBUX), VZ, STORE Capital (STOR), and Realty Income (O).  One additional raise that could come through would be from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM).

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

I made a trio of buys in the first half of August, then followed that up with another trio of buys in the second half of the month.

It was also the first time I didn’t have a position trim since May.

The purchases were comprised of additions to 6 existing Portfolio holdings.  So, I was keenly focused on building out my current holdings in August.

All the investments were in the $330 to $520 range, short of the last one, which approached $900.

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

 

Recent Buys – VZ, MPW, JNJ

Recent Buys – CMCSA, SWKS, MDT

 

The 6 buys resulted in a total investment of $2,974.25.  My forward dividend income jumped by $114.04 as a result.  The effective yield of this group of buys was 3.83%.

Since I didn’t purchase any new Portfolio stocks, the number of stocks in my Portfolio held steady at 58.

 

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.  Compared to July, my Portfolio displayed a nice recovery in forward dividend income totals in August.

 

 

My additional forward dividend income came in at $228.36 in August.  This narrowly bested the $220.16 from August, 2021.

This was my 3rd time exceeding $200 for a month in 2022, and my 2nd best total for the year, only falling short of the $252.72 total from January.

Most importantly, I’m happy to start a new streak of having at least $100 in additional forward dividend income for the month.

The August numbers from Reinvested Dividends and Dividend Raises were better than last year’s numbers in those same categories.  The Investment of Capital total came up a bit shy compared to last year though.

My Year-To-Date (YTD) totals in Reinvested Dividends and Dividend Raises are running ahead of last year’s pace, which is nice to see.  However, I’m well behind pace with respect to the forward dividend income boost from Investment of Capital.  Subsequently, this has put my Portfolio behind the annual pace I managed in 2021 through August.  Hopefully, my Portfolio will kick things into high gear during the final 4 months of 2022 and top last year’s additional forward dividend income total of $2,224.04.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.  Another YoY growth streak has started this month.  I can only hope it will eventually exceed the 78-month streak I snapped in July.

 

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.  I was fairly close to totaling $10K in dividends in just 8 months in 2022.  Not bad!

 

 

Summary

Dividends exceeded $1.1K in August, settling at $1,152.34.  YoY growth crossed 19%, putting the negative YoY growth from July quickly behind me.

Reinvested dividends provided nearly $33 of additional forward dividend income.  This was a solid total considering the middle month of the quarter is my weakest in that regard.

I posted 4 dividend raises in August (one more than in July) with one of them being a double-digit raise.  These raises delivered over $81 of additional forward dividend income.

I made 6 Portfolio transactions in August – all of them purchases, and all 6 of them were of existing Portfolio stocks.  All totaled, it was an investment of nearly $3K, providing just over $114 of additional forward dividend income for my Portfolio.

Tallying the contributions from all sources, I added over $228 in additional forward dividend income for my Portfolio in August.  This was a massive improvement from my July total.

I’m a little behind last year’s pace when it comes to annual additional forward dividend income in the first 8 months of the year.  However, I think I can make up the difference and finish with a better total in 2022.

My Portfolio’s annual forward dividend income total finished the month at $15,582.26.  I should surpass $16K before the end of the year, but can I make it to $16.5K?

 

Did you post some impressive dividend totals or YoY growth in August?  Did you find August to be slow for dividend raises?  Please share in the Comments!

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