It’s time for the home stretch in 2022!  Q4 is here and I’m ready to report October results in my dividend Portfolio.  Here’s a quick preview…

Another $1K+ came my way this month (thankful for that).  By how much did I surpass that mark though?  Specifics are forthcoming.

Year-over-Year (YoY) dividend growth was a bit subdued in October unfortunately.  I was nowhere near my 15% growth target.  I’ll chalk it up as an off month.  Keep reading to get the final percentage.

Forward dividend income generated from my reinvested dividends was solid this month.  Depressed stock prices helped out in this regard.

As it’s been most of 2022, dividend raises were good, but not spectacular.  I came up a bit shy of boosting my annual forward dividend income by the triple-digits I was looking for.

I made a higher-than-average number of transactions in October… 8 of them.  There were 6 buys and 2 sales, and the moves were clustered into a couple of days at the end of the first week of the month.  The best part was that the purchases outweighed the sales and there was an increase to my forward dividend income.

There were significant forward dividend income contributions from all 3 of my sources (reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of capital).  All of them delivered north of $40 in forward dividend income.  However, one of them stood out as the winner in October.  Care to take a guess?

I’d summarize things by saying it was a solid month on the dividend front, and a good start to Q4 that will hopefully end in a strong finish to 2022… a finish that hopefully has me exceed those Portfolio goals that I set at the beginning of the year.

Let’s get to those specifics, starting with my October dividend income…

 

Dividend Income

 

After falling just short of $1K in dividends in October of last year, I safely crossed that threshold this time around.  This month I collected a total of $1,070.48 in dividends.

This translated to 7.17% YoY growth after exceeding the $998.87 that I was paid in October of 2021.  Sadly, this was well short of my monthly 15% YoY growth target.  I expect to bounce back next month.

A total of 21 companies paid me a dividend in October.  Two of those companies managed to pay me a triple-digit dividend, too.  Love those!

Altria Group (MO) paid me $124.35, which led my dividend payers.  RPM International (RPM) managed to deliver $105.74, providing a second stock to cross that $100 threshold.

My smallest dividend was the $9.25 that came from recent Portfolio addition McCormick & Co. (MKC).  I hope to build this position over time in order to ensure it’s not at the bottom of my payers list each quarter.  My next smallest payout was $15.80 from Amdocs Ltd. (DOX).  This is another stock new to my Portfolio within the past year – although it’s been around a bit longer.

The increased dividend amounts from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Merck & Co. (MRK), Omnicom Group (OMC), Comcast (CMCSA) and Medical Properties Trust (MPW) were each helped by one or more 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 $23 in YoY dividend gains from MO, more than $7 from Illinois Tool Works (ITW), north of $6 each from RPM and Automatic Data Processing (ADP), in excess of $5 from Eastman Chemical (EMN) and over $4 from Nike (NKE).  Improvements all around!

What I really liked to see was that there were no stocks with a payout reduction compared to the same month a year ago.  Usually this means that I didn’t trim any holdings over the past year, or have any dividend cuts, from my stocks that pay an October dividend.

There were 5 new dividend payers that arrived this October.  The biggest debut was the $29.38 from STORE Capital (STOR).  However, this was fairly closely followed by dividends of $21.17 from VICI Properties (VICI) and $20.50 from Medtronic (MDT).  New dividends were finished off by $15.80 from DOX, and the smallest one of $9.25 from the aforementioned MKC.

Part of the reason I struggled with YoY dividend growth this October was that I had 4 stocks no longer pay me a dividend this October.  This included W.P. Carey (WPC), Gentex (GNTX), Iron Mountain (IRM) and Air Lease (AL).  These stocks were eliminated from my Portfolio for various reasons, and it resulted in having to overcome a loss of $139.25 in dividend income.

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 very satisfying $44.98.  Once again, depressed stock prices this October helped my dividend reinvestments generate good forward dividend income.  MO and MPW reinvestments did the heavy lifting this month, adding over $10 and $5, respectively, of additional forward dividend income.

As a result of October’s reinvested dividends, I purchased over 20 new shares of stock – I think that’s the most I’ve ever had.  This included over 4 shares of MPW, more than 2 shares of MO, and better than 1 share of six other stocks: RPM, OMC, CMCSA, CSCO, OGE and MAIN.

 

Dividend Raises

October dividend raises were decent, but fell a bit short of my wishful expectations.

While the expected raises came through for my various stocks, overall the raise percentages fell short of what was posted last year.  This has definitely been the trend thus far in 2022, especially after Q1.

All totaled I recorded 5 dividend raises in October.  One raise was stellar, two were acceptable but left me wanting more, and two barely moved the needle for additional forward dividend income.

My first raise of the month came from one of my larger dividend payers in RPM.  RPM tends to deliver raises in the 5%-7% range.  So, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that they announced a 5% dividend increase.  I wished the company could have delivered another percent or so, but I’ll take it.  I will say it was nice to see the resulting $20.14 forward income boost.

Pinnacle West Capital (PNW) followed that with a paltry 1.76% dividend hike.  PNW is still dealing with the regulatory changes last year that crimped its allowable profits.  Thus, meager raises are probably the norm in the next year or two until its payout ratio comes down.

Next up was my best raise of the month from a percentage perspective.  Visa (V) shocked me and delivered a 20% boost to its dividend.  I love it!  My forward dividend income rose by $27.47 thanks to this raise.

With the scalping that VF Corp (VFC) has received in the stock market this year, I wasn’t expecting much of a dividend raise, and that’s what I got.  VFC announced a 2% increase to its dividend.  It’s not much, but it beat the boost provided by PNW!

My last raise of October was delivered by my largest dividend payer, AbbVie (ABBV).  This was another stock where I was hoping for a bit more.  ABBV provided a 4.96% boost to its dividend.  Despite the raise being under 5%, ABBV is such a stout dividend payer for me that it led to my biggest additional forward dividend income jump of the month… $37.84.

 

 

Adding up the dividend raises from October, my forward dividend income increased by $93.21.  I was hoping for a triple-digit month, but with RPM and ABBV underwhelming to some degree, I fell short.  The total wasn’t bad for 5 raises, however.

I’d have to invest $3,282.04 at my Portfolio’s yield of 2.84% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.

Looking ahead to November, I’m anticipating at least 6 raise announcements.  This includes boosts from Automatic Data Processing (ADP), Aflac (AFL), Merck & Co. (MRK), Nike (NKE), Hormel Foods (HRL) and newcomer McCormick (MKC).  It’s possible I hear from Realty Income (O) and Main Street Capital (MAIN) as well.

Since I’m so late delivering this dividend income report, I already know that MAIN, AFL and ADP have announced raises, and that O passed on theirs.  However, I’ll hold off on providing the details for these until next month.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

Portfolio transactions were somewhat elevated for me in October.  I made a total of 8 moves involving 8 different stocks.  The trades were comprised of 2 sales and 6 purchases.

Strangely, all the moves were made about 1 week into the month.

I started things off by eliminating a long-time underperformer from my Portfolio, then reinvesting the sale proceeds (and less than $100 cash) into 5 existing Portfolio positions.  I focused on building up some of my smaller positions, giving them more significant weighting in my Portfolio.

I then finished things off by re-allocating some of my investment within my Industrials holdings – trimming one position and boosting another.

Details for all these transactions can be found in the following pair of posts…

 

Recent Transactions – GILD, PNW, VFC, V, NNN, VICI

Recent Transactions – GD & CAT

 

The two sales and six purchases resulted in a net investment of just $12.46.  Basically, I just moved some money around, attempting to make my Portfolio more to my liking.  My forward dividend income did jump by $43.80 though, despite the minor net investment.

With my GILD sale I realized a long-term capital loss of $612.75 and a short-term capital loss of $0.29.

Since I removed one stock from my Portfolio in all the transactions, the number of stocks in my Portfolio slipped to 59.

 

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.

 

 

In October, I was able to add $181.99 to my additional forward dividend income total.  This was just over $2 better than the $179.94 from October, 2021.  It’s a beat!

Sadly, my 2-month streak of adding more than $200 in additional forward dividend income is over.

I got solid contributions from all 3 sources.  Each source delivered over $43 of additional forward dividend income.  This came on the heels of all 3 topping $50 each in September.

Dividend Raises ($93.21) led the way in October (as they usually do throughout the year), surpassing the combined total of Reinvested Dividends ($44.98) and Investment of Capital ($43.80) this time around.

Only my Reinvested Dividend total this month managed to top what I posted in October of last year.  The October amounts from Dividend Raises and Investment of Capital came up short when comparing to last year.

I’ve got some work to do in the final 2 months of 2022 if I’m going to best 2021’s total of $2,224.04.  I’m sure it will hinge on whether or not my Dividend Raises in Nov. & Dec. will be as good (or better) than the ones I received in 2021.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.  The chart shows that my monthly YoY incomes grows on a consistent basis.  What’s not to like!

 

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.  I’ll surpass last year’s annual dividend total late in November.  Then I’ll see how far I can pad the total in December.

 

 

Summary

A little more than $1,070 in dividends were deposited into my Portfolio in October.  Another $1K+ month!  However, YoY growth was tame, falling shy of 7.2%.

I tallied nearly $45 in additional forward dividend income from reinvesting those dividends.  This was a good 1.5x my $30 monthly target.

My Portfolio saw 5 dividend raises that added over $93 in additional forward dividend income.  I couldn’t manage a triple-digit month after a pair of larger dividend payers provided 5% raises instead of something a little better.  The 20% boost from V was October’s standout raise.

I recorded 8 Portfolio transactions in October, which was three more moves than last month.  The transactions consisted of 2 sales and 6 purchases.  One of the sales resulted in GILD exiting my Portfolio.  All the purchases were of existing Portfolio stocks.  All the transactions resulted in a net investment of approximately $12, but an additional forward dividend income jump of close to $44.

Tallying the contributions from all sources, I added just about $182 in additional forward dividend income for my Portfolio in October.  This was slightly better than the total from last October, but failed to reach $200, thus breaking the mini 2-month streak I had going.

Many dividend raises are showing up a little lighter in percentage terms than what I saw last year.  If this persists in the last couple of months of 2022, then I may have a hard time topping the additional forward dividend income total I posted in 2021.  I’m losing a little steam here as we bring 2022 to a close.

My Portfolio’s annual forward dividend income total finished the month at $15,985.87 (or $1,332.15/mo.).

 

What’s your opinion on the strength of dividend raises in 2022?  Has your Portfolio already surpassed 2021’s dividend total 10 months into 2022?  Please share in the Comments!

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