We just finished up a quarter-ending month so I’m excited to post about my dividend income. That’s because such months offer my best dividend totals of the year.
Even better, after going through each of the past 11 months without setting a new monthly record for dividend income, that string is over.
A new record total for any single month is here, bringing me joy and providing a new target to exceed on a monthly basis. Having Fastenal (FAST) regularly slip their typical mid-month dividend payment from February to early March certainly helped the cause. Regardless… I’ll take it.
My Portfolio dividend totals get stronger as the months pass. I look forward to the day I stop reinvesting the dividends and instead live off of them.
Here’s a quick preview of my dividend income post this month…
Records have been set! My best monthly dividend total ever. Where did the total end up? You’ll know shortly.
Despite the big dividend total, I fell well short of my Year-over-Year (YoY) growth target of 15%. I’ll soon let you know where that YoY growth number came in.
My additional forward dividend income from reinvested dividends looked pretty good in March thanks to my record dividend total. I blew right past my $35 monthly target. But where did I finish?
Unlike February, my Portfolio wasn’t subjected to any dividend cuts in March. Thus, my additional forward dividend income from dividend raises had a nice rebound this month. However, this new income was average I’d say, as March marks the beginning of the 6-month stretch where I have fewer dividend raise announcements.
I only made a pair of small purchases during March, so additional forward dividend income from investment of capital was contained. Still, I did secure a decent contribution to future income with the buys. You’ll know how much in a short while.
When adding up the forward dividend income contributions from all 3 of my sources (reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of capital), I did record a triple-digit total. This kept my Portfolio income increasing at a nice clip. How high did the additional forward dividend income total go? Stay tuned to find out.
Of course, I’ll be sharing my monthly and annual dividend income progress chart updates, too. The record dividend income in March forced me to have to establish a new Y-axis max value in the monthly chart… always a welcomed task.
Let’s start getting to the details in this month’s dividend income report, beginning with my dividend income…
Dividend Income
It was a glorious month of March, as I set a new monthly dividend record of $1,846.18. This exceeds my previous best of $1,669.49 set exactly a year ago.
Unfortunately, the YoY dividend growth of 10.58% was well shy of my 15% monthly target. Yet, it’s hard to complain about double-digit YoY dividend growth, so I won’t do it.
A total of 24 companies paid me a dividend in March. I believe that’s a record total for a single month as well. An impressive 9 companies paid me a triple-digit dividend. Another 9 companies provided $40 or more. All dividends were $10 or more. The dividend total from Main Street Capital (MAIN) was comprised of both a regular dividend and a supplemental dividend.
There was a tight race for my largest dividend this month. Three companies vied for the top spot, but it was T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) that claimed it. TROW delivered a sweet $158.83 dividend. A pair of semiconductor stocks were right behind, as Broadcom (AVGO) and Qualcomm (QCOM) provided $157.90 and $156.04, respectively.
My smallest dividend was the $10.38 from Microsoft (MSFT). That was followed by $16.02 from Cummins (CMI) and $16.61 from NextEra Energy (NEE). I’d love to see all three of these dividends get larger and provide a more significant portion of my dividend income.
The increased dividend amounts from TROW, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), Pinnacle West Capital (PNW), Visa (V), MSFT & NEE 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 $21 in YoY dividend gains from AVGO, north of $17 from QCOM, more than $15 from FAST, in excess of $12 from Union Pacific (UNP) and over $11 from Pepsico (PEP).
I had a couple of stocks that paid me both last year and this year but did so via a payout reduction. The reductions came from 3M Co. (MMM) and VF Corp (VFC). I’d been trimming MMM over the past year as the company’s performance waned and its dividend got riskier (I eventually sold out). The reduction from VFC was due to its dividend cut in February.
There were a pair of new dividend payers this March. Both arrived with modest dividends. Whirlpool (WHR) led the way, providing $26.25. Meanwhile, CMI added $16.02, as noted earlier.
As for stocks no longer paying me a dividend in March, there was only one. I no longer collect a dividend from Gilead Sciences (GILD) after trimming, then ultimately selling 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 an even $58.00. I easily exceeded the $35 monthly target I have. TROW provided a boost of almost $7, while AVGO, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) and MAIN provided more than $4 each. Another 6 companies increased my additional forward dividend income by at least $3 as a result of reinvesting the dividend.
As a result of March’s reinvested dividends, I purchased close to 18 new shares of stock. This included over 2 shares of WBA, FAST and Aflac (AFL). Over 1 share each came from MAIN, VFC, TROW & QCOM.
Dividend Raises
As the 6-month stretch of less frequent dividend raises has begun, I only recorded 4 dividend raises in March.
In addition, the modest dividend raises I’ve seen thus far in 2023 (despite a few exceptions) continued. None of my raises topped 7%.
Still, I did manage to add a decent chunk of additional forward dividend income from these raises due to one of the companies being one of my largest dividend payers.
My first raise announcement was delivered by Best Buy (BBY), which raised their dividend by 4.55%. This was my first raise from BBY since I purchased the stock. I would have to say I was hoping for more.
I got a pair of dividend raises on the 8th of the month. The first was from QCOM. This was my largest raise of the month, at 6.67%. With QCOM being one of my largest dividend payers, the raise boosted my additional forward dividend income by nearly $42. This was roughly two-thirds of my total for the month.
My 2nd raise on the 8th came from General Dynamics (GD), which raised 4.76%. This was a step down from last year’s 5.88%. Raise percentages from GD have trended down for 5 straight years.
Lastly, I received the token quarterly raise from Realty Income (O). It was their normal 0.2% hike. At least this followed a 2.41% raise from O last month.
One raise I was expecting and didn’t get was from my newest stock, American Tower (AMT). AMT has been delivering strong, quarterly raises for several years, but finally decided to pause once I became a shareholder. Wouldn’t you know it!? Let’s hope AMT gets back to raising their dividend next quarter.
Adding up the dividend raises from March, my forward dividend income increased by $61.11. This was a noticeable uptick from last month, but missed the triple-digit mark I always hope for each month. None of the raises were disappointing… it’s just that none of them provided an unexpected upside.
I’d have to invest $2,167.02 at my Portfolio’s current yield of 2.82% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.
Looking ahead to April, I’m only expecting two dividend raises. Each company has a long history of increasing their dividend – both are Dividend Kings. I’m talking about Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Procter & Gamble (PG). I’m expecting raises in the 4%-6% range, but maybe one of them can surprise me with something better. Since both stocks are some of my largest positions, the additional forward dividend income from the raises should be healthy.
Dividends Due To New Investment
Portfolio transactions were limited in March. No sales to speak of, but I did make a couple of purchases.
Both buys were of existing positions that I’d recently established. I was happy to have these small positions become a little more meaningful, however, I’d like to see each position grow further.
Details for both of the purchases can be found in the following two posts…
The two buys resulted in an investment of $1,799.00 into my Portfolio. My forward dividend income consequently increased by a total of $41.12.
With both stocks being existing holdings, 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.
For the first time in 2023, contributions from all three sources were fairly even for the month. The monthly total reached triple-digits without too much trouble.
I tallied $160.23 of additional forward dividend income when accounting for all the sources. This was a good $50 better than in February. It also topped the $125.25 from March of last year.
After one quarter of 2023, I’m ahead of the pace I set in 2022 in additional forward dividend income generated from Reinvested Dividends and Investment of Capital. To no surprise though, I’m trailing in Dividend Raises. The VFC dividend cut really set me back in this category. I’d be ahead of last year’s pace in Dividend Raises if not for that VFC dividend cut, so that’s somewhat comforting.
With regard to Q1 totals, I’m ahead of my 2022 pace by $105, which I’m pleased to see.
Progress Charts
The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.
I adjusted the Y-axis maximum from $1,700 to $2,000 to provide room to show March’s dividend total. Now that’s progress!
On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.
If I simply 4x my Q1 total, I’m looking at annual 2023 dividends of more than $17,250. Another Y-axis adjustment (this time for Annual Dividends) will be in order in that case.
Summary
I raked in a record dividend total of more than $1,846 in March. Love it! The YoY gain of nearly 10.6% was a bit short of my target, but at least it hit double-digits.
There was also a record 24 dividend payments this month. A whopping 9 of those dividend payments reached a triple-digit amount.
Reinvesting my dividends in March led to an outstanding additional forward dividend income amount of $58. I dripped close to 18 shares as well.
Dividend raise announcements within my Portfolio were limited to 4 in March. Raise percentages were average at best, too. However, my biggest raise of 6.67% came from one of my largest Portfolio positions (QCOM) and it salvaged the additional forward dividend income total due to dividend raises, which settled a bit over $61.
Portfolio transactions consisted of just a pair of purchases in March. I added to two existing, but fairly new positions… one in the Real Estate sector (AMT) and the other in Information Technology (ACN). The majority of the investment went into the tech sector. The total investment for the two buys was nearly $1,800, providing an increase of a little more than $41 to my additional forward dividend income.
Tallying the contributions from all sources, I exceeded $160 in additional forward dividend income for March. It was another triple-digit month that kept Portfolio income growing nicely.
As for my Portfolio’s annual forward dividend income, I finished the month with a total of $17,133.97 (or $1,427.83/month).
Did you post a record dividend total in March? If not, what is your expectation for when you do? What do you think of dividend raise percentages in 2023? Please share in the Comments!
I have updated the Portfolio & Dividends pages in conjunction with this monthly update.