Well, we’ve already completed one quarter of 2024.  Time is flying by.  Happily though, the stock market, and thus my Portfolio, have been performing well.

Dividends continue to roll in, too.  I was hoping for record income and as of a month ago I was slated to get it, but the timing of some of my dividends got shifted and my record month will now have to wait.  More on this coming up.

Despite having to forego a record dividend total this month, overall my Portfolio progress is good.  The dividend income continues to grow and the income is as predictable as ever.  I like the direction of my Portfolio income… up!  So, I’ll keeping doing what I’m doing.

Here’s a preview of my Portfolio’s monthly dividend income for March…

Another company shifted its March dividend payment compared to last year, resulting in less dividend income this time around.  This payment shift happened this month (shifting from March to April), but I experienced a similar shift last month as well (shifting from March to February).  Not only did this prevent me from notching record dividend income in March, but it denied me my first ever $2K dividend month.  As it was, I fell a bit short of $1.8K in dividend income this month… you’ll know exactly where I finished up soon enough.

Sadly, the shifting dividend payments resulted in negative Year-over-Year (YoY) dividend growth for March.  This was just the second time I posted a negative YoY month since I started recording such things in 2016.  Of course, this also meant I didn’t even sniff the usual 15% YoY growth target I aspire to.

As for the additional forward dividend income I receive from my 3 sources (reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of capital), I failed to exceed $200 for a 5th straight month.  If fact, I came up well short of $200, although I did have a triple-digit total.  I had one source that didn’t contribute to my total at all.  Stick around to discover which source wasn’t helping the cause in March.

Of course my dividend progress charts got updated as they usually do.  Expect to find both monthly and annual dividend income charts.

Alright, let’s get to all the various dividend details… starting with my dividend income for March.

 

Dividend Income

 

In March I tallied dividends totaling $1,792.35… just shy of the $1.8K mark.  With Pepsico (PEP), pushing their normal March dividend payment to early April, I missed out on setting a new monthly dividend record.  Couple that with Fastenal (FAST) moving their dividend from early March to late February last month and not only did I not set a new record dividend total, but I missed out on my first-ever $2K dividend month.  It’ll have to wait I guess!

Unfortunately, PEP moving their dividend to April this year also led to me not eclipsing last year’s March dividend total.  YoY dividend growth was negative, coming in at -2.92%.  No bueno!  This is just the 2nd time since I started recording YoY growth in 2016 that I failed to post a positive number.

On a brighter note, a total of 21 companies paid me a dividend in March.  Broadcom (AVGO) paced my dividend payers, delivering $183.49.  Qualcomm (QCOM), T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) and Aflac (AFL) all provided stellar dividends north of $167, too.

In total, seven of my dividend payers provided a triple-digit dividend.  I expect Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) to join the club no later than September, after it provided $99.23 this month.

With my low share total and the stock’s tiny yield, Microsoft (MSFT) delivered my smallest dividend in March… $13.81.  The next smallest came from Realty Income (O), which at $26.66 was close to double the dividend from MSFT.  I’d like to get my MSFT dividend to a quarterly amount of $25, but that will require buying 15 more shares.  At nearly $425/share, that would translate to an investment of better than $6.3K.

The increased dividend amounts from SWKS, NextEra Energy (NEE), Cummins (CMI), Realty Income (O) and MSFT were each helped by one or more purchases over the past year.

The increased dividend amount from Main Street Capital (MAIN) was due to a special dividend for the quarter.

Increased YoY amounts for all other companies were a result of dividend increases and reinvested dividends over the past year.  I added more than $30 in YoY dividend gains from AFL after a terrific dividend raise last November, better than $25 from AVGO, over $14 from QCOM, and nearly $10 each from TROW and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

Of the stocks that paid me in both March of last year and this year, none of them posted a payout reduction.  That’s now three months in a row achieving this!  This typically means that I didn’t trim my positions and didn’t record any significant dividend cuts.

As for new March dividend payers, I had two of them.  Both were new Portfolio additions over the past year.  Enbridge (ENB) debuted with the largest dividend, $82.89.  Meanwhile, my most recent Portfolio addition, Hershey Co. (HSY), provided $27.40.

As for stocks that no longer pay me a dividend this March, I had five.  The two largest were PEP ($132.96) and FAST (114.24) which shifted their dividend by one month – FAST moved up, while PEP moved back.  As for the other three stocks, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), 3M Co. (MMM) and V.F. Corp. (VFC), they were all eliminated from my Portfolio due to poor performance and withering dividend raises.

 

As usual, all my dividends got automatically reinvested into the stocks that paid them.  However, there were a couple exceptions this month.  First, my AVGO dividend didn’t get reinvested.  My broker told me it was due to the stock’s high stock price.  As for ENB, that dividend was only partially reinvested after a portion was withheld for tax purposes.

The result of the reinvestment that did take place was an additional $51.99 of forward dividend income.  Make it 7 months in a row exceeding $50!  TROW added nearly $7 to this month’s additional forward dividend income total.  MAIN nearly added $6, while ENB delivered better than $5 and AFL topped $4.  Another three stocks exceeded $3 each, and four more managed to add more than $2 each.  Good contributions from many of my holdings.

As a result of reinvested dividends in March, I dripped more than 14 new shares of stock.  This included over 2 shares of AFL, MAIN & ENB, and 1 share or more from TROW and QCOM.

 

Dividend Raises

The 6-month slow season for my dividend raises began in March.  While the raise percentages during this time may be quite adequate, the sheer volume of raises will see a decline from the previous 6-month period.

I received just 4 dividend raises in March… and what looks like one cut (although one could argue it’s not a cut upon further inspection).  There was also one surprise dividend raise in the bunch.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any double-digit dividend raises, but there were enough decent raise percentages to satisfy me.  A couple of these led to a good boost to my forward dividend income since they were decent-sized positions.

 

The month kicked off with a 6.25% hike from Qualcomm (QCOM).  This fell a bit short of the 6.67% raise provided in 2023, but I found this to be acceptable.  Due to QCOM being one of my bigger dividend payers, this resulted in $42.91 of additional forward dividend income.  I’ll take that.

On the next day, General Dynamics (GD) came through with a 7.58% dividend raise.  This topped the 4.76% hike from last year.  This is one of only three holdings of mine thus far in 2024 that has bested their dividend raise from 2023.  Companies seem to be playing it conservatively in 2024.  Nonetheless, make it $12.11 in additional forward dividend income from this raise.

The token raise from Realty Income (O) was next.  O provided a 0.19% dividend raise for its quarterly increase.  This added only $0.63 in forward dividend income.  I fear we may not see the extra, larger dividend raise from O this year (as experienced in 2022).

American Tower (AMT) tends to provide quarterly dividend hikes.  This quarter, however, AMT lowered their dividend compared to the previous quarter (-4.71%), but it was higher YoY (+3.85%).  So, while this is effectively a cut (since the forward dividend income is based on the last dividend payment), one could easily see how it’s not.  The adjustment translated to a $6.56 drop in my forward dividend income.

My surprise dividend raise of the month came from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM).  Just 9 months removed from its last dividend hike, JPM delivered a 9.52% raise, topping its previous raise of 5%.  This resulted in a quality $34.33 increase in forward dividend income.  It’s good to see JPM making up for the dividend freezes experienced in 2020 and 2022.

 

 

After accounting for all my March dividend raises, my annual forward dividend income couldn’t quite reach a triple-digit increase, as it had in previous months.  It finished at $83.42.  However, this large double-digit increase is more than acceptable.  QCOM and JPM toted the rock this month for my Portfolio when it came to dividend raises.

I’d have to invest $3,101.12 at my Portfolio’s recent yield of 2.69% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.

Looking ahead to April, the number of dividend raises is expected to dwindle to three.  I expect to hear from FedEx (FDX), Procter & Gamble (PG) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), that’s it.  However, PG and JNJ are a couple of my better dividend payers, so I’m hoping the additional forward dividend income boost will be decent.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

Transaction activity was non-existent in my Portfolio in March.  While I had cash to spend, I wasn’t motivated to buy after what was lining up to be a 5th consecutive month of increasing prices.

I decided to save my cash for the eventual pullback in stock prices, but it never came.

The last time I didn’t make any Portfolio moves for the entire month was in November of last year.

As such, there are no transaction details to talk about this month, and no posts to direct you to either.

Obviously, my net investment was $0 in March, and thus my forward dividend income due to new capital investment was $0 as well.

The number of stocks in my Portfolio remained at 58.

 

Tallying Up The Additional Forward Dividend Income

In 2024, 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 2023 totals as well, so that we can compare as the year progresses.

 

 

Accounting for all the sources, March brought $135.41 of additional forward dividend income.  My four month streak of topping $200 in forward dividend income was broken.

Still, surpassing $100 for the month is a solid total, especially during these months where the number of dividend raises are fewer in quantity, especially since this source usually leads the pack for me.

Take into account that Investment of Capital contributed nothing in March, and reaching a triple-digit monthly total was an excellent achievement.

Compared to last year, Reinvested Dividends were a tad lower, despite reaching at least $50 for the 7th straight month.

However, Dividend Raises exceeded last year’s total.  I can thank that unexpected JPM raise for that.

Investment of Capital dragged me down in March.  Had I at least equaled what I did in the category last year, this year’s additional forward dividend income total would have exceeded last year’s.

For the year, almost $684 in additional forward dividend income has been accumulated.  I’m about $15 ahead of last year’s pace after the 1st quarter of 2024.  Not bad, but I can’t relax now.  If I can invest some of the cash I’m sitting on then I should be in good shape moving forward, as it’s the Investment of Capital that is contributing at a reduced level thus far in 2024.

 

Progress Charts

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

This month was just my 2nd time failing to achieve YoY growth in my monthly dividends (darn those shifting dividend payments!).  The previous time was in July of 2022, the result of having to make up for a large one-time special dividend paid in July 2021.

 

 

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

One quarter into 2024 and I’m still shooting for a $20K dividend year, even though I’m a bit behind.  There’s still time to pick up the pace, but I don’t want to fall too much further behind.  Let’s see if I can make up some ground by mid year.

 

 

Summary

What was slated to be a record dividend month came up short of that after dealing with a couple of shifting dividend payments.  Still, I collected more than $1,792 in dividends in March.

The altered payment schedule also resulted in me posting a negative YoY return (-2.92%) this month… for just the 2nd time ever.  Needless to say, this YoY percentage didn’t come anywhere close to reaching my target growth percentage of 15%.

A total of 21 companies paid me a dividend in March, with a third of those paying me a triple-digit dividend.  All the dividend payments were north of $26, except for the one from MSFT.

Reinvested Dividends provided nearly $52 of additional forward dividend income.  This extended my streak of $50+ months to seven.

As I began the 6-month stretch where I see a reduced number of dividend raises, I was able to notch 4 dividend raises for the month – none of them were double-digit raises though.  One of the raises was a surprise one from JPM, which provided its previous raise just 9 months prior.

I technically suffered a dividend cut from AMT as well, but the impact was almost negligible.

All the March raises (and the cut) added more than $83 to my additional forward dividend income.

I held tight to my cash in March, as I wasn’t enamored enough with any stock to commit to a purchase.  Thus, Portfolio transactions were non-existent in March, and I had $0 in additional forward dividend income due to new capital investment.

Tallying the contributions from all sources, over $135 in forward dividend income was added my Portfolio in March.  I failed to reach $200 in additional forward dividend income for a 5th consecutive month, but reaching triple-digits was satisfying.

 

Were you able to secure a record dividend month in March?  Did you receive any dividend raises of 10%+ this month?  Please share in the Comments!

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