When the stock market volatility is high like it has been recently, I can always calm myself down by looking at my dividends.

The steady nature of those dividend payments eases my mind and reminds me to stay the course.  Keep investing… stick to the plan.

In the future, when I tap my Portfolio for income to cover my expenses, I’ll be thankful that I worked so diligently to build it up.

So how did I help myself in September?  What did my dividend results look like this month?  Well, I’m going to characterize my September dividend results as solid.

Not only did I top $1K again, but I cruised right past that level.  It was a quarter-ending month after all.

In fact, I came real close to reaching a record monthly total.  I’ll have to postpone a new record for a future month.  It will arrive soon enough.

For Year-over-Year (YoY) dividend growth I was within 1% of my 15% target?  Did I exceed my target, or fall just short?  The answer is coming.

With falling stock prices, my reinvested dividends packed a punch when it came to boosting my annual forward dividend income.  I recorded my best month this year, easily blowing past my $30 target.  Stick around to see the final number.

Dividend raises were plentiful in September, but they failed to result in better forward dividend income numbers than I posted in August with less than half the number of raises.  Still, the increase in income was good.  I’ll share the details shortly.

I made only one cluster of Portfolio transactions in September, but the 5 total moves provided a nice chunk of new dividend income.  This series of moves also introduced some new stocks to my Portfolio.  New stocks and more income… that’s a combination I can get excited about.

With good forward dividend income contributions from all 3 of my sources (reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of capital), I easily pushed into triple-digit additional forward dividend income for the month.  The question is, did I exceed the ~$228 boost I notched in August?  This knowledge will soon be yours.

Good news was abound with respect to dividends for my Portfolio in September.  The consistency and predictability of my dividends has kept me grounded in these uncertain markets.

Let’s check out the details and find out why I can rest easy.  We’ll start with my September dividend income…

 

Dividend Income

 

It was a terrific month of dividends in September as a total of $1,655.17 was collected.  This was oh so close to a record total, but it came up just shy (less than $15).

More good news… in September, I posted 15.99% YoY growth after exceeding the $1,427.05 that I collected in September of 2021.  I currently have a 15% YoY growth target each month, so I was happy to cross that level.

A total of 23 companies paid me a dividend in September.  An incredible 8 of those companies delivered a triple-digit dividend.

Qualcomm (QCOM) led my dividend payers by paying $154.15.  However, T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) was a close second, also eclipsing $150 by sending $152.83 my way.

My smallest dividend was $6.54 from NextEra Energy (NEE).  With NEE always looking overvalued, I haven’t added to my position to be able to boost that dividend payment.  The time will come though.  My Microsoft (MSFT) dividend wasn’t much larger at $7.56, although I did manage to tack on another MSFT share recently, which will help boost the dividend payment for next quarter.

The increased dividend amounts from TROW, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), Amgen (AMGN), Visa (V), and Pinnacle West Capital (PNW) were each helped by one or more additional purchases over the past year.

QCOM managed an increased dividend amount despite a trim of mine last November.  Meanwhile, the YoY jump from Main Street Capital (MAIN) was largely due to a special dividend.

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 Aflac (AFL), more than $21 from BlackRock (BLK) and Union Pacific (UNP), $20 from Broadcom (AVGO), not to mention over $11 from Pepsico (PEP) and JNJ.  There were good results all around.

There were 2 stocks with a payout reduction compared to the same month a year ago.  The first was a reduction from Gilead Sciences (GILD), and the second a decrease from 3M Co. (MMM).  I trimmed each stock once during the past year due to their performance issues and slow dividend growth.

Only 1 new dividend payer arrived this September, and that was Cummins (CMI).  I’d been looking to establish a CMI position for a while and finally got the job done this past April.  The dividend was relatively light ($15.81) compared to my other ones, but I’ll look to build the position and have the dividend payments grow.

One stock no longer paid a dividend for my Portfolio this September.  That was Merck & Co. (MRK) spinoff Organon & Co. (OGN).  I didn’t see myself adding to OGN after the spinoff, so I sold a few months later.  Luckily, the sale only meant a dividend reduction of $2.80 for my Portfolio.

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 terrific $55.59.  I love crossing that $50 threshold!  Depressed stock prices during the month of September helped my dividend reinvestments go a long way.  I had good contributions to my forward dividend income from reinvested dividends this month as 17 of the 23 payers added over $1 to my total.  The most came from TROW ($6.79) and AVGO ($5.06).

As a result of September’s reinvested dividends, I purchased over 15 new shares of stock.  This included over 2 shares of AFL and Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), and over 1 share each of QCOM, TROW, GILD, MAIN and VF Corp (VFC).

 

Dividend Raises

September marks the beginning of the best 6-month stretch of dividend raises my Portfolio will see each year.  So, needless to say I’m excited.

Dividend raises have provided the biggest boost to my forward dividend income every year since 2018.  I don’t expect that to change in 2022.

The number of September dividend raises was quite good with 9.  However, none of those raises were of the double-digit variety, and thus the resulting dividend income boost was a bit muted.

Still, it was a respectable start to my 6-month dividend raise window.  Let’s see what I got…

The first raise of the month came from Verizon Communications (VZ).  VZ delivered the expected ~2% increase it’s been providing for the past several years.  This small percentage raise coupled with my fairly small position in VZ meant only a $3.57 boost to my forward dividend income.

One of the reasons I bought VICI Properties (VICI) earlier this year was its faster-than-normal dividend growth for a REIT.  VICI did not disappoint… posting an 8.33% dividend hike.  That kind of raise for a stock in any sector would make me happy.  Even with the nice boost, my small VICI position meant only notching a $6.52 income increase from the raise.

Next, the token quarterly increase from Realty Income (O) was delivered as expected.  It was a 0.2% increase resulting in half a buck of forward dividend income.

Of my September dividend payers, Texas Instruments (TXN) is my largest position.  So, when TXN delivered a 7.83% dividend raise, I added $20.15 to my forward dividend income… very close to my best bump of the month.

STORE Capital (STOR) delivered one last dividend raise before being taken private early next year.  It was a 6.49% boost that added $7.17 to my forward dividend income.  This is a nice raise from a REIT, so I’m sad STOR will be leaving my Portfolio.

In percentage terms, my best dividend raise for September came from MSFT.  It was a 9.68% increase that only added $2.93 to my forward dividend income.  A small MSFT position and the stock’s low yield worked against this raise resulting in a big income boost.

My next dividend raise was easily the most disappointing of the month.  OGE Energy (OGE) provided only a 1% raise, which in turn led to only a $1.74 dividend income increase.

In dollar terms, my best September dividend raise came from Starbucks (SBUX).  SBUX delivered an 8.16% raise, which bumped my forward dividend income up by $20.33.

I thought the dividend raise from Lockheed Martin (LMT) was going to slip into next month.  However, LMT announced their dividend raise on a Friday afternoon on the last day of the month.  LMT posted a solid 7.14% raise.  This increased my forward dividend income by $11.72.

One thing that stood out this month… all of these raises were a lower percentage increase compared to last year.  Given the operating/market environment in 2022 compared to 2021, that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.

 

 

Adding up the dividend raises from September, my forward dividend income increased by $74.63.  I’ll take it, but I would have hoped for a larger total from 9 raises.

I’d have to invest $2,423.05 at my Portfolio’s yield of 3.08% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.

Looking ahead to October, I’m looking at either 4 or 5 raises, so about half my September total.  This includes announcements from RPM International (RPM), VFC, V and AbbVie (ABBV).  One additional raise that could come through would be from PNW, however this one slipped into November last year and may do the same this time around.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

I made one cluster of 5 transactions late in September.  This was my only Portfolio activity for the month.

I ended up purging one stock from my Portfolio, then reinvested all those sale proceeds, and a little cash, into three new Portfolio stocks and one existing one.

The three new positions were fairly equally weighted at around $2K each.

Details for all these transactions can be found in the following post…

 

Recent Transactions – GNTX, BBY, FDX, MKC, MSFT

 

The one sale and four purchases resulted in a net investment of $171.54.  However, my forward dividend income jumped by $91.34 as a result.  The effective yield of this net investment was 53.25%!  That what can happen when higher-yielding stocks replace a lower-yielding one.

My GNTX sale resulted in a long-term capital gain of $2,096.41 and a short-term capital loss of $33.88.

Since I removed one stock from my Portfolio, but added three new ones, the number of stocks in my Portfolio settled at 60.

 

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.  I may come up shy of last year’s additional forward dividend income total if dividend raise percentages can’t hold up in this last quarter of 2022.

 

 

My additional forward dividend income came in at $221.56 in September.  This was a little short of the $228.36 from last month, but topped the $194.85 from September, 2021.

This was my 4th time exceeding $200 for a month in 2022, and second straight month eclipsing that $200 level.

September was the first time all year I got more than $50 contributions from each category.

My September numbers from Reinvested Dividends and Investment of Capital were better than last year’s numbers in those same categories.  Unfortunately, as just noted, Dividend Raises were not able to surpass last year’s effort.

My Year-To-Date (YTD) total in Reinvested Dividends definitely looks as if it will top last year’s total – one more month should do it.  I suspect the year-end total from Dividend Raises will be very close to the total from 2021.  However, I feel that I won’t invest enough cash in the remaining quarter of this year to make up the shortfall that I’m staring at in the Investment of Capital category.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.  I was so close to a monthly record in September!  I may have to wait until next March to do it.

 

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.  My 9-month total in 2022 almost bested the 12-month total from 2020… that’s some good progress.

 

 

Summary

I raked in a dividend total of more than $1,655 in September.  YoY growth was essentially 16%, marking a healthy gain relative to last year.

Reinvested dividends provided more than $55 of additional forward dividend income.  Cratering stock prices made my reinvestments appear rather timely.

I tallied 9 dividend raises in September (more than double my August total), but none of them were a double-digit raise.  These raises allowed me notch nearly $75 of additional forward dividend income.

I managed 5 Portfolio transactions in September – one sale and four purchases.  The sale resulted in GNTX leaving my Portfolio, while three of the four purchases introduced new stocks to my Portfolio (BBY, FDX & MKC).  The other purchase was a single share add to existing holding, MSFT.  These moves resulted in a net investment of a little more than $171 and provided more than $91 of additional forward dividend income for my Portfolio.

Tallying the contributions from all sources, I added over $221 in additional forward dividend income for my Portfolio in September.  That’s a number that puts a smile on my face.

I remain behind last year’s pace (just a bit) when it comes to additional forward dividend income through the first 3 quarters of the year.  I’m starting to feel that I might come up short of last year’s total since dividend raises are seemingly becoming less generous.

My Portfolio’s annual forward dividend income total finished the month at $15,803.88.  $16K should be in reach next month.

 

Tell me all about your amazing quarter-ending month of dividends in your portfolio.  Please share in the Comments!

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