Wow, I’ve got November dividend income to share and then it’s on to the final month of 2023.  But before I start focusing on December, let’s dwell on this past month a little bit.

November was a good month for my Portfolio value, that’s for sure.  There was lots of green in my Portfolio with stock prices moving decidedly higher, and plenty more green when it came to dividends rolling in for the month.

There were no dividend records to speak of given that it was a middle month of the quarter, but it’s hard not to be excited with the continued progress.  Here’s a preview of how I fared with respect to dividends in November…

Monthly dividend income exceeded $1.4K, but did I make it to $1.5K?  You’ll find out shortly.

Year over Year (YoY) dividend growth topped my 15% monthly target.  But did I reach 20%?  Even if I didn’t, I liked the results.

Additional forward dividend income from my 3 sources (reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of capital) nearly reached $275 in November, despite zero contribution from one of the three sources.  Stick around to learn which source could have made my month even better, and which ones actually delivered.

Of course, I’ll have updated progress charts to peruse as well (for monthly and annual dividends).  The charts show that there’s been some excellent progress in 2023.

Wait no longer!  Let’s get to the details for this month’s dividend income report, beginning with my dividend income…

 

Dividend Income

 

For November, I raked in a total of $1,439.36.  That’s a solid total… and it just happens to be right on par with an average month for me in 2023.

I posted another strong month of YoY dividend growth in November.  I easily topped my 15% growth target by finishing at 17.96%.  Amazingly, only three of the eleven months this year have fallen short of this percentage.  Needless to say, it been a good year with respect to YoY dividend growth.

A total of 18 companies paid me a dividend in November.  That doesn’t quite compare to the 20+ companies I see in each of the other two months of the quarter, but it’s not far off.  I was also happy to see six companies providing a triple-digit dividend.

The largest dividend of the month was provided by AbbVie (ABBV).  The $207.89 was my largest regular quarterly dividend ever.  The $151.46 dividend from Nexstar Media Group (NXST) wasn’t too shabby either.  This dividend jumped in 2023 thanks to a monster 50% dividend raise back in February.

On the other end of the spectrum, my smallest November dividend was $19.55 and came courtesy of Accenture (ACN).  This is one of my newer Portfolio holdings so I’ll need more time to build out the position in an effort to get to a $25 quarterly dividend (or $100 annually).

The increased dividend amounts from Verizon Communications (VZ), Texas Instruments (TXN), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), and Realty Income (O) 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 $53 in YoY dividend gains from NXST, north of  $17 from ABBV, topped $15 from Fastenal (FAST), added more than $8 from CVS Health (CVS), and $7+ from Lowe’s Companies (LOW) and Procter & Gamble (PG).

Sadly, of the November stocks that paid me both last year and this year, a couple of them posted payout reductions.  These stocks were General Dynamics (GD) and National Retail Properties (NNN) (or NNN REIT after it changed its name earlier this year).  Neither of these reductions were related to dividend cuts, but rather some trimming on my part.  I used the GD proceeds to invest more in Caterpillar (CAT), and the NNN proceeds to bolster my VZ position.

As for new dividend payers in November, there was just one.  It was ACN.  With only a modest number of shares being owned and a below average (at least for my Portfolio) 1.5% yield, ACN debuted with a dividend just south of $20.

Happily, I didn’t record any stocks that no longer paid me a dividend this November.  I’m sure that helped contribute to my above target YoY growth this month.

 

As usual, all my dividends got automatically reinvested into the stocks that paid them.  One exception though… not all of my ACN dividend got reinvested, as my broker withheld a small amount.  The result of all the reinvestment was an additional $52.29 of forward dividend income.  This topped $50 for the third month in a row.  Those falling stock prices this past quarter were a boon to my additional forward dividend from reinvested dividends.  The reinvestment of the ABBV dividend accounted for nearly $9 of my total, while VZ added almost $8, and more than $5 came from NXST.

As a result of November’s reinvested dividends, I dripped over 16 new shares of stock.  This included exactly 3 shares of VZ, close to 2 shares of FAST, and better than 1 share each of ABBV, CVS, BMY & NXST.  Even Hormel Foods (HRL) and Main Street Capital (MAIN) were very close to adding a full share.

 

Dividend Raises

The month of November is typically one of my best of the year for dividend raises and it did not disappoint!

All 7 of the companies that I was expecting to hear from delivered a raise.  There were also 2 additional companies that I thought might announce a raise, and they delivered as well.

So, it was 9 total dividend raises for November.  This tied for the most raises I’ve received in a single month this year, matching the 9 I had in September.  The best news though… November’s dividend raises packed a much healthier punch than those from September.

Two of the raises were of the double-digit percentage variety.  Also, many of my raises resulted in double-digit additional forward dividend income.

On the first day of the month came the third dividend raise of the year from Main Street Capital (MAIN).  I can’t say I was expecting this one after MAIN raised twice earlier in the year.  Each raise has been fairly small, but they add up.  November’s raise was 2.13%, but accounting for all three raises in 2023, the percentage gain is 6.67% for the year.  My additional forward dividend income rose by $10.36 with this dividend hike.

The next day, I got my biggest raise of the month, both in percentage terms and with respect to the additional forward dividend income.  The raise came from Aflac (AFL) and it was a massive 19.05% hike.  This easily topped the 5% boost provided by AFL last year.  Given that AFL is one of my largest dividend payers, the raise had an impressive impact on my forward dividend income, adding $106.76.  Sweet!… a triple-digit income boost from a single stock.  I’m lucky to get triple-digits from all stocks in a given month, let alone from a single stock.  Thank you, AFL!

The good news kept coming the following week, with my 2nd double-digit raise of the month.  It was a healthy 12% raise from Automatic Data Processing (ADP).  This was a step down from last year’s 20.19% raise, but I’m not complaining.  This raise added another $33.57 to my forward dividend income.

By mid-month it was time for another raise, and it was delivered by Nike (NKE).  This year’s 8.82% boost from NKE was a reduction from the 11.48% delivered last year, but it was still solid.  Add another $16.19 of additional forward dividend income to my total.

Things started to cool off with the next raise announcement.  Hormel Foods (HRL) ponied up a 2.73% boost… less than half the 5.77% hike from last year.  This was the lowest raise percentage from HRL since 2009.  My additional forward dividend income rose by a slight $3.60 thanks to this raise.

Merck & Co. (MRK) was next, handing over a 5.48% dividend raise.  This was slightly less than the 5.8% hike from the prior year.  With MRK being one of my larger dividend payers, the raise resulted in a nice double-digit forward dividend income addition of $19.73.  MRK has had a spotty dividend history over the past 20 years, so this is a welcomed raise percentage.

On the same day as MRK, I received another dividend raise.  This one came from McCormick & Co. (MKC).  While the raise percentage was a bit heftier at 7.69%, it didn’t provide nearly the same forward dividend income boost, $4.29, since MKC is one of my smaller holdings.  On the bright side, this year’s raise topped the 5.41% boost from last year.

My newest Portfolio stock, Enbridge (ENB), delivered my next dividend raise.  ENB came through with a 3.1% hike, which translated to $9.85 of additional forward dividend income after converting to U.S. dollars.

I was extra happy to see my last dividend raise of the month since it came from a company that suspended its dividend back in 2020… The Walt Disney Co. (DIS).  The raise didn’t put the dividend back at the same level as when it was suspended (in fact it was well short), but at least I’ll be getting paid something now… this is a dividend portfolio after all!  The dividend is a bi-annual one of $0.30/share, giving the stock a modest 0.65% yield.  My forward dividend income increased by $18 exactly as a result of the raise.

 

 

After accounting for all my November dividend raises, my forward dividend income increased by a stellar $222.35.  Nearly half of this total came from AFL, too.

I’d have to invest $7,801.75 at my Portfolio’s current yield of 2.85% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.  That’s awesome.

Looking ahead to December, I’m expecting 6 raises, and maybe a 7th.  I expect to hear from Eastman Chemical (EMN), Broadcom (AVGO), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), CVS Health (CVS) and Amgen (AMGN).  I won’t forget about the small one from Realty Income (O) either.  The question mark is whether or not I hear from American Tower (AMT), which has typically announced smaller quarterly raises, but did miss one earlier this year.  As of this writing, four of the above companies have already announced dividend raises in December, but I’ll save those details for next month.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

All was quiet on the transaction front in November.  Cash was limited and stock prices were moving higher, so I sat on the sidelines and planned to regroup for December.

I believe the last time I didn’t make any Portfolio moves for the entire month was back in June of 2020 (I must have been busy trying to avoid COVID-19!)

In any case, there are no transaction details to worry about this month, and thus no posts to direct you to.

As expected, my net investment was $0 in November, and thus my forward dividend income showed no change from new investment.

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.

November was a banner month for additional forward dividend income.  Not only did I more than double last month’s total, but I fairly easily surpassed the $220+ total from November of last year.

 

 

Accounting for all the sources, I added $274.64 of additional forward dividend income in November.  This was my 3rd time in 2023 that I exceeded $200 for the month, and my 2nd best total of the year, trailing only the astounding $398.51 from January.

What’s exciting for me is that this total was reached without any contribution from Investment of Capital.  There will come a day where I stop adding capital to my Portfolio and my Portfolio will have to perform on its own.  This gives me some optimism that successful months can happen in the future.

Dividend Raises led the way for additional forward dividend income in November, totaling $222.35.  This was the first time I reached triple-digits from this source since January.  Thanks to the terrific month of November, I should be able to exceed $1K from this source by the end of the year, but I’ll probably fall short of the $1,173.82 from last year due to the two dividend cuts from VFC that I suffered in 2023.

Reinvested Dividends contributed a solid $52.29, just eclipsing the total from last month and easily beating the $36.13 from last year.  I’ve already topped the total from Reinvested Dividends that I had from all of last year.

Thanks to the strong month of November, I’m confident I’ll exceed over $2K of additional forward dividend income for 2023.  However, I suspect I’m going to fall short of the $2,202.56 that I achieved last year, and obviously the record $2,224.04 from 2021.

 

Progress Charts

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

November was the fourth time in 2023 that I topped $1.4K in dividends for a month.  I’ll see if I can reach $1.8K in December to finish 2023 on a strong note.  If I can, it would be just my second time collecting $1.8K or more for a month.

 

 

 

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

As I usually do each November, I surpassed the prior year’s dividend total.  I’m ready to put a cherry on top of my 2023 dividend sundae in December.  The final total will be a new annual dividend record.  I look forward to having to adjust my Y-axis numbers to allow for a bigger total!  I suspect I will end up around $17,630.

 

 

Summary

November turned out to be a terrific month for my Portfolio.  Not only was the stock market roaring higher, but a nice pile of dividends were raked in, too.  I collected over $1,439 in dividends from 18 different companies.

Six of the dividend payers provided triple-digit dividends, with one topping $200 for the month (a record $207.89 from ABBV).  Thirteen of the eighteen dividend payers delivered at least $57, and no dividend was smaller than $19.  I like seeing solid contributions all around.

YoY dividend growth fell just shy of 18% in November, but this topped my monthly 15% target and kept up the strong momentum that I’ve had throughout the year.

More than 16 new shares of stock were dripped from my dividend reinvestments, and over $52 of additional forward dividend income were generated from this.

I had 9 dividend raises from my Portfolio stocks in November.  A couple of those companies provided a double-digit dividend hike, led by the 19%+ boost from AFL.  This lone raise nearly accounted for half of the more than $222 in additional forward dividend income that stemmed from all the raises.

Portfolio transactions were non-existent for me in November.  It had been over 3 years since I failed to execute a transaction in my Portfolio during the month.  Of course, this meant no investment into my Portfolio in November and thus $0 of additional forward dividend income.

Tallying the contributions from all sources, I added over $274 in additional forward dividend income in November.  This was my 2nd best monthly total in 2023 and has put me in striking distance of reaching $2K for the year.

As for my Portfolio’s annual forward dividend income, it’s at $18,219 now.

 

Were dividend raises as plentiful in November for you as they were for me?  Are you lined up for record dividend totals (either monthly or annually) in December?  Please share in the Comments!

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