After a hot start to 2023 in January, things cooled off quite a bit in February.  Things can change quickly in the stock market, that’s for sure.

While stock prices dipped in February and my Portfolio value took a step back, the dividends kept rolling in to steady the rocking boat.

However, as you’ll find out, not everything was all sunshine and rainbows when it came to my dividends this month.

Here’s a quick preview of my dividend income post this month…

For the 2nd month in a row, monthly dividends topped $1.2K.  By how much did I cross that threshold?  You’ll find out shortly.

I easily exceeded my Year-over-Year (YoY) growth target of 15%.  How good was it?  The answer will soon be yours.  Let’s just say it was outstanding for now.

February is typically my worst month for additional forward dividend income from reinvested dividends.  That may be the case again this year.  However, I did top my $35 monthly target that I set for each month this year.  The final number is just ahead.

The black cloud in my dividend news this month was a dividend cut that put a serious dent in this month’s forward dividend income.  Hang tight for the company that disappointed me and the impact that cut had on my Portfolio.  There were actually plenty of dividend raises for my Portfolio in February, but they were all but overshadowed by that single dividend cut.

With regard to Portfolio transactions, the number of moves was above average in February.  Most of the moves were buys, but there was a sale that had one stock exit my Portfolio.  Perhaps more exciting was that one of the purchases brought a new Portfolio stock.  The best news coming from all the transactions was the net positive forward dividend income.

When adding up the forward dividend income contributions from all 3 of my sources (reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of capital), I still attained the triple-digit total I aspire to each month.  However, that dividend cut took what could have been one of my better forward dividend income months and made it average.  It’s a temporary setback, I’m sure.  Yet, it will sting for a little while.

February’s results ended up being decent enough that my annual dividend goals are still intact despite the income hiccup.  I’ll reset and forge ahead.

Let’s check out this month’s dividend income report, starting with my dividend income details…

 

Dividend Income

 

In February, I was grateful to collect a total of $1,244.90 in dividends – slightly topping last month’s results.  Another solid dividend total, no doubt.  It kept alive my quest to top $1.2K each month in 2023.

The YoY dividend growth of 21.85% for February blew past my 15% monthly target.  Dividend income surpassed the $1,021.69 that I was paid in February of 2022.  This was only the 2nd time I’ve eclipsed 20% YoY growth in the past year.

A total of 18 companies paid me a dividend in February, with two-thirds of them providing $50 or more, and all but two delivering $25 or more.  There were lots of healthy dividend payments in February!

What stands out from this group of February dividend payers was my first $200 regular dividend payment, which came from AbbVie (ABBV) – $201.88 to be exact.  Three other dividend payers managed to top a dividend of more than $100 – love those triple-digit dividends!

My smallest dividend was $11.20, which came from Portfolio newcomer Accenture (ACN).  A double-digit dividend is a nice way to debut.

The increased dividend amounts from Starbucks (SBUX), Caterpillar (CAT) and National Retail Properties (NNN) 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 amazingly added over $51 in YoY dividend gains from Nexstar Media Group (NXST) after their massive 50% dividend hike in January, more than $25 from Lowe’s Companies (LOW), in excess of $16 from ABBV, north of $8 from Procter & Gamble (PG) and over $7 from CVS Health (CVS).

I had one stock that paid me both last year and this year that had a payout reduction.  The reduction came from General Dynamics (GD) and it was the result of a trim I executed last October.  I basically shifted some of my investment dollars between Industrials stocks in my Portfolio.

There were a couple of new dividend payers this February.  Arriving with the largest dividend total was Verizon Communications (VZ), bringing $73.39.  I’ve been building out this position over the course of the past year and the amount of its dividend payments are rising nicely.  The other new dividend payment came from the aforementioned ACN.

As for stocks no longer paying me a dividend in February, there was only one.  It was Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI).  It was just about 1 year ago that I sold off the last of my shares after several trims prior to that.  The lack of any dividend growth and dwindling dividend safety were enough to get me to exit my position.

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 $38.72.  I was happy to cross the $35 monthly target I have as February is often my weakest month with regard to forward dividend income from reinvested dividends.  ABBV provided a boost of more than $7, while NXST and VZ added more than $4 each.

As a result of February’s reinvested dividends, I purchased over 11 new shares of stock.  This included over 1 share of both VZ and ABBV, but only fractional shares of the other stocks.

 

Dividend Raises

I had high hopes going into February that my Portfolio might experience up to 10 dividend raises during the month.  Unfortunately, not only did that number of dividend raises fall short, but there was an unexpected dividend cut from a company that raised their dividend just 4 months ago.

There were 7 dividend raises announced in my Portfolio, but that was 3 shy of the total I was expecting.  Sadly, there was that dividend cut, too.

In addition, that lone dividend cut wiped out nearly all the forward dividend income my Portfolio gained from the 7 raises.  Ouch!

As a result, a month in which there was so much promise fell well short of expectations.

The month started out fairly strong.  My first dividend raise was just a couple of days into February.  Quest Diagnostics (DGX) delivered a 7.58% raise, which was about 1 percentage point better than last year’s raise.  A good start to the month.

However, it all fell apart days later.  On February 7th, T. Rowe Price Group (TROW), one of my largest dividend payers and strongest dividend growth stocks, announced a 1.67% dividend hike.  This was well below the double-digit dividend raises the company has provided over most of the past decade.

This was followed by a 41.18% dividend cut from V.F. Corp (VFC).  Considering VFC raised the dividend (albeit slightly) just last October, this was a nasty surprise.  This cut resulted in an $87.18 loss of forward dividend income.

Finally, 3M Co. (MMM) once again disappointed with its third annual sub-0.7% dividend raise.  Thankfully, this was the last announcement on the 7th, as I didn’t need any more uninspiring dividend news that day.

Thankfully, two days later, I had Pepsico (PEP) deliver a double-digit raise of 10%.  Given that PEP is one of my larger dividend payers, the raise put $53.19 of forward dividend income to my Portfolio, offsetting a decent amount of income lost to that VFC cut.

After skipping their largest dividend raise in 2022 (of the several they usually provide each year), Realty Income (O) announced one early in 2023.  It was a 2.41% boost.  This was nearly 3 times bigger than the 4 combined raises from last year.  I’m glad O has resumed their historical dividend trend.

The next day, Cisco Systems (CSCO) announced a dividend raise of similar size – 2.63%.  This was indicative of the 1-cent dividend hikes CSCO has provided each of the previous 3 years.  I’d like to see CSCO pick up the dividend growth.

Rounding out the month was my only other double-digit dividend boost.  It was a 10% raise from NextEra Energy (NEE).  This nice raise didn’t impact my forward dividend income too much given my small NEE position.  However, I’ve been working to increase the size of my NEE holding recently, so hopefully next year’s raise will have a more substantial impact.

As I noted earlier, 3 stocks I was expecting a dividend raise from failed to deliver one.  These stocks included Medical Properties Trust (MPW), Omnicom Group (OMC) and Whirlpool (WHR).  I certainly understand the freeze from MPW given their tenant troubles, but I was surprised by the other two.  OMC has an irregular dividend raise schedule, but after not raising last year, I thought this was going to be the time.  I don’t have much history with WHR yet, but not raising the dividend is no way to start our relationship.  🙂

 

 

Adding up the dividend raises from February, my forward dividend income increased by an underwhelming $4.71.  Even if I removed the VFC dividend cut from the mix, forward dividend income for the month would have come up short of triple-digit territory.  This goes to show the weakness of some of my dividend raises this month.  The small raise percentage from TROW affected my anticipated total rather significantly.

I’d have to invest $168.21 at my Portfolio’s current yield of 2.80% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.  Let’s hope that’s my last dividend cut for quite some time.

Looking ahead to March, the quantity of dividend raises will drop off.  March is the beginning of a 6-month stretch where I expect fewer dividend raises.  Triple-digit forward dividend income months from dividend raises are probably over for now.  The expected raises from Best Buy (BBY), General Dynamics (GD), Qualcomm (QCOM) and newcomer American Tower (AMT) can hopefully impress in March.  I’ve already heard a raise announcement from Best Buy (BBY), but I’ll save that for next month.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

My trading activity ramped up a little in February.  I made 7 total moves consisting of 6 buys and 1 sale (my first of 2023).

One of my purchases resulted in a new Portfolio position (AMT), while my lone sale ended up eliminating a Portfolio stock (MMM).

During the month I also made two purchases of WHR and two of NEE.  I added to my VZ position, too.

Details for all the transactions can be found in the following three posts…

 

Recent Buy – NEE

Recent Buy – WHR (x2)

Recent Transactions – MMM, VZ, AMT, NEE

 

All the transactions resulted in a net investment of $2,440.22 into my Portfolio.  Furthermore, my forward dividend income increased by a total of $66.27.

While MMM exited my Portfolio in February, AMT arrived.  Thus, the number of stocks in my Portfolio held steady at 60.

 

Tallying Up The Additional Forward Dividend Income

In 2023, 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 2022 totals as well, so that we can compare as the year progresses.

While I was flying high after January, I came back down to Earth in February thanks to that VFC dividend cut.  It’s a good reminder to stay diligent with watching the Portfolio holdings.

 

 

The results from February weren’t bad, but I expected more for the month than I got.  I tallied $109.70 of additional forward dividend income.  It’s hard to argue with a triple-digit month, but I thought I could do better.  I hated to see what is usually one of my best months turn into an average one.

Compared to last February, I made strides with the contributions from Reinvested Dividends and Investment of Capital, as both exceeded last year’s numbers.  However, I didn’t come close to matching my results in Dividend Raises.  Overall, it was a noticeable dip from February of last year, as well as a massive one from last month.

Still, after two months, the 2023 total is ahead of the 2022 pace, despite trailing in Dividend Raises this year.  I consider this somewhat surprising given that Dividend Raises has been the primary driver of my additional forward dividend income the past few years.

Oh well, it’s still very early in the year.  There’s plenty of time to hit or surpass my forward dividend income targets.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.

It was another great YoY gain in February.  In March, it appears an adjustment to my Y axis will be needed!  I’m expecting a record dividend total.

 

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.

Ooh, I was fairly close to topping my dividend total from all of 2015 in just 2 months in 2023.  Perhaps I can make that happen in 2024!

 

 

Summary

I received nearly $1,245 in dividends in February with a stellar 21.85% YoY gain.  My strong start to 2023 continued.

There were 18 dividend payments this month, with 4 of them being triple-digit amounts.  One of those was my first $200+ dividend and it came from ABBV.

Additional forward dividend income from reinvested dividends was solid this month.  I added over $38 in this category.  I dripped more than 11 shares as well.

While I got 7 dividend raise announcements in February, 3 companies chose to forego a dividend raise for now, too.  In addition, there was a dividend cut from VFC.  All totaled, I only eked out less than $5 in additional forward dividend income in my dividend raise category.  The cut reduced my forward dividend income by over $87.

February Portfolio transactions were comprised of 6 buys and 1 sale.  With one of the purchases, I established a new position (AMT).  With the one sale, I eliminated my MMM position.  The net investment for the 7 transactions was over $2,440.  I got a boost of better than $67 to additional forward dividend income, too.

Tallying the contributions from all sources, almost $110 in forward dividend income was added my Portfolio in February.  It was another $100+ this month, but the VFC dividend cut dented my expected February total.

As for my Portfolio’s annual forward dividend income, I finished the month with a total of $16,973.41 (or $1,414.45/month).

 

Did you suffer a dividend cut in February?  Maybe it was VFC like me, or perhaps another high profile dividend stock in Intel (INTC)?  Please share in the Comments!

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