While August turned out poorly for my Portfolio value, it’s hard not to like what transpired with respect to dividends.

I love the predictable nature of the dividends… whether it’s the monthly income, the annual raises (for the most part), or the ever-growing forward dividends.

Right now I plow the dividends back into my Portfolio to spur its growth, but eventually those dividends will pay for my expenses.  All the effort I put into growing my Portfolio with be rewarded with what should be lifelong income once I flip the switch.

Watching the monthly progress inspires me to keep up with my efforts… and that’s what I intend to do.

Here’s a preview of this month’s dividend income post before I start delving into the details…

Monthly dividend income settled in around $1.4K.  This question is… did I finish just over that threshold, or just under?  You’ll know soon enough.

As for my monthly Year-over-Year (YoY) dividend growth target of 15%.  I blew past that target, but where did I end up?  Stick around to find out.

Additional forward dividend income was terrific in August with solid contributions from all 3 of my sources (reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of capital).

New forward dividend income from Reinvested dividends safely exceeded the $45 mark, with two stocks accounting for about 1/3 of my total.  Most of the dividend raises were good, even though none of them were double-digit hikes… still they added over $87 in additional forward dividend income.  I got the biggest forward dividend income boost in August from my capital investments… keep reading to see if triple-digit income resulted from the investments.

All totaled, the 3 sources added more than $200 in additional forward dividend income, but how high did it go?  Either way, the total was the largest I’ve had since January, so that was nice to see.

Of course, I’ll be providing updated monthly and annual dividend income progress charts, too.  As year-end approaches, it’s becoming a bit easier to project final 2023 totals.

Let’s get this started… here are the details for this month’s dividend income report, beginning with my dividend income…

 

Dividend Income

 

In August, dividend income to the tune of $1,397.96 rolled in.  Oh so close to $1.4K!

YoY dividend growth came in at 21.31%.  I love it.  This easily topped my 15% monthly target, and it was my third best monthly YoY percentage of the year.

A total of 18 companies paid me a dividend this August.  One-third of the companies delivered a triple-digit dividend.  One stock even surpassed $200.  Woohoo!

That top August dividend was delivered by AbbVie (ABBV).  The company paid me $205.88.  The $150.16 dividend from Nexstar Media Group (NXST) wasn’t too shabby either.

As for my smallest dividend of the month, that came from Accenture (ACN)… it was $16.91.  The 2nd smallest dividend was $22.39, which came from monthly payer Realty Income (O).

The increased dividend amounts from Verizon Communications (VZ), 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 added more than $52 in YoY dividend gains from NXST (amazing!), north of $17 from ABBV, and better than $15 from Fastenal (FAST).

Of the stocks that paid me both last year and this year, only one showed a payout reduction, and that was General Dynamics (GD).  I trimmed GD last year in order to increase my position in CAT.

As for new dividend payers in August, there was just a single one… ACN.  Its debut, topping $15, was quite decent.

Happily, I didn’t have any stocks that no longer paid me a dividend this August.  The absence of any dividend reductions always makes it easier for the YoY dividend total to grow.

As usual, all my dividends got automatically reinvested into the stocks that paid them.  The result of the reinvestment was an additional $47.71 of forward dividend income.  This easily surpassed the $35 monthly target I have.  The reinvestment of ABBV and VZ were the most significant (almost $16), accounting for nearly one-third of the entire forward dividend income progress.  However, another 7 stocks contributed better than $2 each to the total.

As a result of August’s reinvested dividends, I purchased more than 15 new shares of stock.  This included nearly 3 shares of VZ, over 2 shares of FAST and better than 1 share of ABBV.  Another 3 stocks nearly provided a whole share (at least 0.95 shares).

 

Dividend Raises

After a rough July in which I only received 2 dividend raises that contributed less than $8 in additional forward dividend income, I saw a decent bounce back in August.

First the quantity of raises improved, from 2 to 4.  More importantly, the total $ increase from the raises was much better.

Unfortunately, none of the raise percentages reached double-digit territory, but the increases I did receive were pretty good.  What really helped boost my additional forward dividend income though was that the modest raise percentages were applied to some of my largest dividend payers.

My first raise announcement came from Main Street Capital (MAIN).  The raise was a small 2.17% bump to its regular dividend, but realize this is MAIN’s 2nd dividend boost in 2023.  The previous hike was 2.22% back in May.  Thus, the total increase thus far in 2023 has been 4.44%… just shy of last year’s 4.65% total increase.  The raise from MAIN tacked on $10.12 to my forward dividend income.  MAIN also announced another special dividend this quarter, its third of the year.

The second raise was a 6.87% boost from Illinois Tool Works (ITW).  This fell short of last year’s 7.38% hike, but not by much.  This added a nice $23.58 to my forward dividend income.

My biggest raise percentage of the month was announced by Skyworks Solutions (SWKS).  The company hiked its dividend by 9.68%, which boosted by forward dividend income by $31.01.  This year’s raise was about one percentage point less than the 10.71% increase from last year.

Near the end of August I received my last dividend raise of the month.  Altria Group (MO) provided a 4.26% boost, which translated to $22.94 of additional forward dividend income.  Once again, just like with the previous stock raises discussed, this raise failed to surpass the previous year’s raise (which was 4.44%).

 

 

After accounting for all the dividend raises in August, my forward dividend income increased by a healthy $87.65.  This was a significant step up from last month, and slightly better than last year’s August total.  Progress!

I’d have to invest $3,054.01 at my Portfolio’s current yield of 2.87% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.

Looking ahead to September, I’m expecting continued strength, as the best 6-month period for dividend raises in my Portfolio is slated to begin.  I expect to hear from no less than 10 companies during the month.  This includes Verizon Communications (VZ), VICI Properties (VICI), Microsoft (MSFT), Texas Instruments (TXN), Lockheed Martin (LMT), OGE Energy (OGE), Starbucks (SBUX), Accenture (ACN) & American Tower (AMT).  There should also be a token quarterly boost from Realty Income (O).  I’m hoping MSFT and ACN can provide 10%+ raises, but we’ll see.  As of this writing, two of these ten companies have already announced a dividend hike in the first week of September, but I’ll save those details for next month.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

My transaction activity heated up in August, which seems appropriate for a summer month.  This was the most activity I’ve had in a single month since February.

All totaled, I recorded 6 purchases and 1 sale.  The lone sale was me exiting one of my positions.  One of the six purchases included me establishing a new position.

The majority of the purchases resulted from better stock prices in a declining market.  REITs dominated my purchases, but I also added to a couple of Utilities names.

Details for all 7 of my transactions can be found in the following 4 posts…

 

Recent Buys – MSFT & NNN

Recent Buys – O & NEE

Recent Transactions – AMT & MPW

Recent Buy – UGI

 

My transactions resulted in an net investment of $4,455.69 into my Portfolio.  My forward dividend income increased by a total of $100.17.  This was my largest monthly investment in quite some time.  I ended up investing a good chuck of cash, on top of the sale proceeds, to help replenish the lost dividend income that came from my Medical Properties Trust (MPW) exit.

While I exited one stock position (MPW), I did initiate a new one (UGI).  Thus, the number of stocks in my Portfolio remained 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.

I need to finish the year strong if I hope to reach my additional forward dividend income goal of ~$2,285 for the year.  That prospect is looking a bit shaky.

 

 

Accounting for all the sources, I recorded $235.53 of additional forward dividend income in August.  This just eclipsed last year’s total of $228.36 by about $7.

August’s total was my 2nd best for 2023, only trailing the nearly $400 total I posted back in January.

All three sources provided good contributions.  Investment of Capital was my best source of the month, reaching triple-digits ($100.17) on its own… for the first time all year.  Dividend Raises notched its 2nd best month of 2023 ($87.65), while Reinvested Dividends recorded its 3rd best month of the year ($47.71).

I’m less than $2 behind last year’s pace for additional forward dividend income.  However, to reach my additional forward dividend income goal for the year, I’ll need to average adding $242/mo. over the final 4 months of 2023.  This will be a tall task.  I don’t think I’ll see any positive Dividend Raise surprises, so I think the only way I will get there is through additional capital investment.

 

Progress Charts

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

Strong YoY gains were posted in August.  You can see that stands out in the chart below.

 

 

 

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

I came close to collecting the same amount of dividends in 8 months of 2023, as I did for all of 2020.  I’m on my way to adding another step in the dividend staircase in 2023!

 

 

Summary

Solid dividend progress for my Portfolio continued in August as I notched my best “middle month of the quarter” dividend total ever.

I collected nearly $1,398 in dividends from 18 dividend payers.  Six of the dividend payers topped $100, with ABBV providing over $200 to my Portfolio this month.

The strong YoY dividend growth that I’ve had in 2023 continued in August as I recorded more than 21% growth.

I dripped over 15.2 new shares of stock by reinvesting my August dividends.  The resulting additional forward dividend income was close to $48.

My dividend raises were better in August than they were in July.  The quantity of raises doubled to 4, and while the raise percentages weren’t large, they were for some of my larger dividend payers, so the additional forward dividend income looked good.  The income boost approached $88, which was my 2nd best total of the year.

Portfolio transactions escalated in August.  There were 7 total moves, including 6 purchases and 1 sale.  MPW was purged from my Portfolio, while UGI was introduced to it.  Purchases of REITs and Utilities stocks highlighted my transaction list.  After all the moves, I made a net investment of more than $4,450 and realized north of $100 in additional forward dividend income.

Tallying the contributions from all sources, I easily posted a triple-digit month.  Actually, I got over $100 from Investment of Capital all by itself.  The August total came close to $236, my 2nd best month of 2023.

As for my Portfolio’s annual forward dividend income, I finished the month with a total of $17,784.36 (or an average of $1,482.03/month).

 

Did your purchase activity heat up in August with the declining stock market?  How is your dividend total for 2023 shaping up now that 2/3 of the year is in the books?  Please share in the Comments!

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