Another month down in 2025 and the dividend income continues to stream in.  It’s a terrific feeling.

While there wasn’t any record dividend income to share in April (like there was in March), it was still a solid month.

The income provided a nice distraction from the declines in the stock market, especially, earlier in the month.  The last week or two has shown a decent recovery though.

I’m getting closer to putting my dividend income toward my monthly expenses, but for now, reinvestment is taking place.  Any additional growth I can squeak out of the Portfolio before I start using the income will be nice.

Before we dive into April’s dividend details, let’s get a quick preview of what to expect in this month’s dividend income report…

Monthly dividend income eclipsed $1.5K in April, but I did that in April of 2024 as well.  Did I have negative Year-over-Year (YoY) growth?  Find out soon.

Reinvesting the majority of my dividends, at reduced prices no less, led to another $50+ being added to my forward dividend income.  Stick around to find out how high the total got.

As expected, dividend raises for my Portfolio have begun to slow down.  I’m into that 6-month window when dividend raises aren’t as plentiful.  How many raises did I end up with?  You’ll have to keep reading to get that number.  The raise percentages were limited as well… nothing better than 5%.

Portfolio transactions dropped to a more normal level after a busy month of March.  There were buys and sells, but no stock purges occurred and no new stocks arrived.  Also, despite there being a net withdrawal from my Portfolio when factoring in all the transactions, I managed an increase to my forward dividend income.  I’ll let you know how that happened coming up.

With regard to additional forward dividend income from my 3 sources (reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of capital), all the sources delivered solid totals, which together turned into a decent month of April.  While none of the three sources provided triple-digit amounts individually, they did as a group… can’t complain about that!

Of course there are updated progress charts to see, too.  Sometimes looking at the data outside of a spreadsheet table illustrates the growth more clearly.

OK… let’s get to this… the dividend details for April 2025 are next, starting off with my dividend income…

 

Dividend Income

 

April dividend income finished with a satisfying total to be sure.  My Portfolio collected a healthy $1,521.25.  This just surpassed last April’s total of $1,518.76.

This led to very small YoY dividend growth.  I came up well short of my 15% growth target, and barely finished with growth at all, by coming in with just a 0.16% gain.

This April’s dividend income and YoY growth was impacted by my Pepsico (PEP) dividend which returned to March after being paid out in April last year.  This timing benefited this year’s March numbers, but hurt this year’s April numbers.  But, there’s nothing to be worried about.  It was just a one-time impact that I had to deal with this month.

A total of 24 companies paid me a dividend in April.  A handful (5) of these payers delivered a triple-digit dividend to me.  The remaining payments were quite good, too, as only 3 of those other 19 dividends failed to be under $25.

RPM International (RPM) provided my largest dividend during the month at $134.13, with JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) not too far behind at $122.76.

Newcomer Salesforce (CRM) paid my smallest dividend of the month, just $6.24.  Another newcomer, Intuit (INTU), provided twice that much, $12.48, but was still my 2nd smallest dividend.

The increased dividend amounts from Nike (NKE), Amdocs Ltd. (DOX) and FedEx (FDX) 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 $24 in YoY dividend gains from JPM.  I also exceeded more than $15 from RPM, as well.  In addition, almost $10 was added from Automatic Data Processing (ADP), and nearly $9 from Illinois Tool Works (ITW).

Of the April stocks that paid me both last year and this year, one of them had a payout reduction, and that was Altria Group (MO).  The reduction was due to a trim I executed, unloading my most expensive shares and reducing the dividend weighting of this high-yielding stock.

As for new dividend payers in April, there were four of them – two closed-end funds and two stocks.  The CEFs debuted with the largest distributions.  DNP Select Income Fund (DNP) delivered $66.13 while BlackRock Health Sciences Trust (BME) provided $52.77.  As for the two stocks, they were both new Information Technology holdings for me – INTU and CRM.  They delivered my two smallest dividends of the month, as outlined earlier.

Three stocks no longer paid me a dividend this April.  The one from PEP ($150.39) was covered earlier and was related to the timing of the dividend payment.  The absence of the OGE Energy (OGE) and McCormick & Co. (MKC) dividends, ($60.07 and $17.64, respectively) was the result of me eliminating those two positions from my Portfolio.  I’d own both stocks again, but felt like there were presently better opportunities for my investment dollars than in those names.

 

Nearly all my dividends got automatically reinvested into the stocks that paid them.  The exceptions were… 1) there was only a partial dividend reinvestment of Medtronic (MDT) due to a portion of the dividend being withheld for foreign tax purposes, and 2) there was no dividend reinvestment of MO since I turned off reinvestment for the stock since I’m comfortable with the current size of my MO position and didn’t wish to see it grow.  The result of all the dividend reinvestment that did take place was an additional $52.01 of forward dividend income.  I love crossing that $50 level and lower stock prices certainly help during dividend reinvestment.

The reinvestment of the DNP distribution accounted for better than $5 of the forward dividend income total.  The BME and Merck & Co. (MRK) reinvestments each added better than $4.  There were three other companies providing north of $3 as well, and yet another six companies delivering more than $2.  Needless to say, there were lots of significant contributions to the total.

As a result of April’s reinvested dividends, I dripped over 25 new shares of stock.  DNP accounted for nearly 7 shares all by itself in April.  UGI Corp. (UGI) and Comcast (CMCSA) each dripped over 2 shares, with VICI Properties (VICI) nearly reaching the $2 mark, too.

 

Dividend Raises

My Portfolio tallied 4 dividend raises in April.  While this was two less than I’ve gathered in each of the past two months, it was one more than I was expecting.

Unexpected dividend raises are great, no doubt.  In this case, it came from Fastenal (FAST), providing their 2nd raise of the year when they usually raise just once annually.

The raise percentages amongst the group were nothing to write home about, as my largest raise was 5%… a couple of times.  Still, that’s a decent raise.

Forward dividend income from raises didn’t reach triple-digits in April, but I wasn’t expecting it given the reduced number of dividend raises I anticipated.

Procter & Gamble (PG) announced my first dividend raise for April.  The company provided a 5% raise.  Unfortunately, this failed to match the 6.99% raise that PG managed last year.  Since PG is one of my larger dividend payers, this raise added $29.26 to my forward dividend income… not bad at all.

It was just two days later that FAST provided that 2nd, unexpected raise I mentioned.  After delivering a 10.26% hike in January, FAST provided a little extra in April, announcing an additional 2.33% raise.  Thus, counting both raises, FAST is up to a 12.82% dividend boost in 2025.  This 2nd raise added another $13.02 to my forward dividend income.

In the middle of April, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced a 4.84% dividend raise.  This bested the 4.20% hike the company provided last year, so that was nice.  With JNJ being one of my better dividend payers, this raise translated to a forward dividend income addition of $25.98.

Finishing off the month was a 5% dividend hike from Alphabet (GOOG).  This was their first dividend raise after initiating a dividend one year ago.  Given the cash hoard that GOOG has, I was hoping for a larger raise, but I’ll take what I can get.  With the low yield this stock has (around 0.5%), and my starter position, this raise only added a measly $1 to my forward dividend income.

 

 

After accounting for all my April dividend raises, my forward dividend income jumped by a decent double-digit amount of $69.26.  PG and JNJ, a pair of my legacy stocks, accounted for the majority of this.

I’d have to invest $2,430.18 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.

Looking ahead to May, I expect to see my number of dividend raises fall in line with the number from April… so 4 dividend raises.  I expect to hear from Main Street Capital (MAIN), Medtronic (MDT), Lowe’s Companies (LOW) and Flowers Foods (FLO).  UGI Corp. (UGI) has historically raised in May, too, but they froze their dividend last year, so we’ll see.  There’s also an outside shot of hearing from Union Pacific (UNP).  They have raised in May in recent years, however their last raise came 10 months ago in July.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

After some hectic months of Portfolio transactions to start 2025, things calmed down in April.  While the stock market swung wildly up and down last month, I mostly hung out on the sidelines.

Eventually, I made a small number of moves, but overall, transactions were limited.  I only made 3 moves (1 sell, 2 buys) during the entire month, spread across a couple of back-to-back days.

No new stocks entered or exited my Portfolio.  Instead, I focused internally on existing positions.

The moves started with me trimming my American Tower (AMT) position.  I unloaded my most expensive shares… about 1/3 of my position.  AMT is now the smallest position in my Portfolio.

I followed that up with a pair of buys – one closed-end fund, BlackRock Health Sciences Trust (BME), and one stock, NextEra Energy (NEE).  I was able to slightly lower my cost basis on both.

Details for my trio of transactions can be found in this single post…

 

Recent Transactions – AMT, BME, NEE

 

My transactions resulted in a net withdrawal of $116.41 from my Portfolio.  Despite this, my forward dividend income rose by $37.96 thanks to the higher yields of my purchases compared to my sale.

With no Portfolio positions being opened or closed with any of the transactions, the number of stocks/funds in my Portfolio remained at 59.

 

Tallying Up The Additional Forward Dividend Income

In 2025, 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 2024 totals as well, so that we can compare as the year progresses.

 

 

In April, I continued to post strong results for additional forward dividend income.  As I’ve done in each month thus far in 2025, I bested my monthly total from the previous year.  This puts me well ahead of pace for breaking the record income total of $2,441.98 from 2024.

Accounting for all the sources, I added $159.24 of additional forward dividend income in April.  This topped the $133.38 I recorded last year.  All 3 sources in April, 2025 exceeded the amount I posted in April, 2024.  That’s just how you draw it up.

As is usually the case, Dividend Raises were my strongest source, leading the way by providing $69.26.

For the first time this year, Reinvested Dividends wasn’t my source providing the least during the month.  Delivering $52.01 to the total was enough for Reinvested Dividends to finish 2nd this month.

Failing to reach a triple-digit dollar amount for the first time in 2025, Investment of Capital still had a decent month by contributing $37.97 to April’s additional forward dividend income total.

All 3 sources are currently on track to eclipse the annual contributions they generated last year.  Things are looking good with one-third of the year in our rear-view mirrors.  If my Portfolio can add about $101 in additional forward dividend income in May, then I’d be half way to reaching last year’s total with a whopping 7 months remaining to get it done.

 

Progress Charts

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

One can see the impact of that Pepsico (PEP) dividend shifting from being paid in April in 2024 to being paid in March in 2025.  The YoY growth in March looks outstanding, but no so much in April.  I’m sure this won’t be the last time such a thing happens.

 

 

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

Taking my progress through 4 months of 2025 and projecting a total for year’s end, I calculate that I might be looking at another Y-axis adjustment come December.  I can’t wait!

 

 

Summary

My dividend results were skewed by a shifted PEP dividend payment between last year and this year.  This helped me this March, but hurt me this April.  While the monthly dividend total for April reached $1,521.25, the YoY growth was muted at just 0.16%.

April saw my Portfolio receive 24 dividend payments.  Five of those payments were triple-digit dividends, led by a hefty $134.13 dividend from RPM.

Reinvested Dividends generated more than $52 in additional forward dividend income in April.  Topping $50 each month for the remainder of the year would be a terrific accomplishment.

I received just 4 Dividend Raises in April, but that was one more than I expected.  That’s because FAST provided their 2nd dividend thus far in 2025, when they normally provide just one.  None of the dividend raises topped 5%, so that was a bit disappointing.  However, the forward dividend income from the raises wasn’t bad, as it exceeded $69.

In April, the number of Portfolio transactions I made were down compared to previous months.  I made only 3 moves in total, comprised of 1 sell (AMT) followed by 2 buys (BME & NEE).  There were no stocks eliminated from my Portfolio or joining my Portfolio in April.  The transactions resulted in a net withdrawal from my Portfolio of roughly $116.  However, I was still able to increase my forward dividend income by almost $38 since the additions were of higher-yielding holdings relative to the one I trimmed.

Tallying the contributions from all sources, over $159 of forward dividend income was added to my Portfolio this April.  I remained well ahead of last year’s record pace for additional forward dividend income.  A strong May could put me over half way to exceeding that record forward dividend income total notched in 2024.

 

Did you have any dividend surprises in April?  Maybe a shifted dividend payment like I had with PEP?  Perhaps an unexpected dividend raise?  Please share in the Comments!

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