This is a special dividend income report. Why? Because it’s the 100th one of the series!
Over 8 years ago, I posted my first monthly dividend income report. It was a much shorter report back then, but it had to start somewhere.
I still hold 6 stocks in my Portfolio that were listed in that initial report. Others have departed my Portfolio… for the better, I’m sure.
I’ve added quite a bit of content to the monthly dividend income report over the years. Hopefully, you find each one informative. Here’s to another 100!
October brings the 1st month of the final quarter of the year. It’s the home stretch of 2025, and I hope to finish the year with some new dividend records.
Here’s a preview of what’s to come in this month’s dividend income report…
Dividend income crossed the $1.6K plateau, but YoY growth wasn’t able to exceed my monthly target of 15%.
I reinvested the majority of my dividends and added north of $60 in additional forward dividend income.
There were 5 dividend raises in my Portfolio. They brought triple-digit additional forward dividend income – 3 of those raises did most of the work, with one of them providing a double-digit percentage hike.
The month almost passed with no Portfolio transactions, but I snuck in a pair of buys in the final days of October – one of the stocks was new to the Portfolio. Only a small amount of additional forward dividend income resulted from the moves.
The additional forward dividend income from my 3 sources (reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of capital) was respectable in October. I was able to exceed the total from last month, and just top the amount from the same time last year.
You’ll see updated progress charts, too, to be sure. Sometimes the visual data can paint a pretty picture.
Enough of the preview, let’s see the dividend details. Here’s what I’ve got for October 2025, starting with my dividend income…
Dividend Income
No dividend records were set in October (as expected), but it was a good month. My Portfolio collected a total of $1,629.47 in dividends.
YoY dividend growth fell short of my 15% target, but still managed to grow at a double-digit percentage clip, finishing with 12.59%. It’s hard to complain about that.
I had 24 companies pay me a dividend this month. This was just one less than last month. There were only 6 triple-digit dividend payers in October, too, just half of the total from September. However, another 11 companies paid me at least $50, too.
RPM International (RPM) delivered my largest dividend of $143.32. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) wasn’t too far behind as it provided $132.91. On the smaller side, the lowest dividend of the month came from Salesforce (CRM), which sent $8.33 to my Portfolio. The next smallest payment was from Intuit (INTU), providing a modestly larger dividend of $14.45.
The increased dividend amount from FedEx (FDX) was 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 better than $24 in YoY dividend gains from JPM, as well as more than $10 from both RPM and Illinois Tool Works (ITW). I also exceeded $9 from Automatic Data Processing (ADP), and north of $7 from Merck & Co. (MRK).
Of the October dividend payers that paid me both last year and this year, a pair of them had a payout reduction – Altria Group (MO) and Main Street Capital (MAIN). The reductions were both due to trims I executed. I trimmed MO to reduce my exposure to the high-yielder. Meanwhile, I trimmed MAIN due to the stock looking overvalued to me.
As for new dividend payers in October, just like last month, I had 5 of them. The largest amounts were from the 3 closed-end funds (CEFs) that I purchased in the past year: PIMCO Corporate and Income Strategy Fund (PCN), DNP Select Income Fund (DNP), and BlackRock Health Sciences Trust (BME). Each is a monthly payer. PCN led these 3 payouts with $105.93, followed by DNP with $68.83, and lastly BME which paid $60.09. The final two new amounts were much smaller, and came from some fairly new tech holdings – INTU & CRM. The respective amounts of $14.45 and $8.33 were detailed above.
Three stocks no longer paid me a dividend this October. They included OGE Energy (OGE), American Tower (AMT) and McCormick & Co. (MKC). I sold each of these in order to invest elsewhere. I’d consider buying each again should the price be right. I gave up a $61.91 dividend from OGE, $33.78 from AMT and $19.95 from MKC, for a total of $115.64.
As usual, most of my dividends got automatically reinvested into the stocks that paid them. However, there were two exceptions in October. First, it was only a partial dividend reinvestment of MDT due to a portion of the dividend being withheld for foreign tax purposes. Second, my Altria Group (MO) dividend didn’t get reinvested since I turned off my drip for this stock, as I don’t want to see my position grow.
The result of the dividend reinvestment that did take place was a hefty $60.93 of additional forward dividend income. This was my 4th highest total ever.
The reinvestment of my PCN distribution accounted for close to $11 of the forward income total. The other two closed-end funds (DNP & BME) drove the forward income total higher by roughly $5 each. Five additional positions added between $3-$4 to my forward income total.
As a result of October’s dividends that did get reinvested, I dripped almost 33 new shares. PCN accounted for nearly 8 shares all by itself, with DNP providing nearly 7 more shares. Comcast (CMCSA), UGI Corp. (UGI) and VICI Properties (VICI) each topped 2 additional shares due to their reinvestment.
Dividend Raises
October brought in 5 dividend raises, which was one less than last month. However, it still resulted in more forward dividend income.
Only one of my October raises reached a double-digit raise percentage. This same stock was my only one during the month to exceed their raise percentage from last year. I’ll identify the stock in just a bit.
My first dividend raise arrived on the first day of the month. Sadly, it was my most disappointing raise of the month as well. Starbucks (SBUX) announced just a 1.64% dividend hike. This was well below the 7.02% raise from last year, and it continues a downward trend that started in 2019. The raise translated into just $6.29 of additional forward dividend income. A 4.27% raise would have moved my SBUX dividend to a triple-digit level ($100 per quarter). That will have to wait.
Just a day later, RPM International (RPM) came through with a 5.88% dividend increase. This was a step down from the nice double-digit raise percentage (10.87%) from last year, but more in line with their historical percentage. With RPM being one of my larger dividend payers, this raise translated into a handsome $31.85 increase to my forward dividend income.
After another week passed, Lockheed Martin (LMT) announced a 4.55% boost to their dividend. This was just a tiny drop from the 4.76% raise provided last year, but continues a trend of smaller dividend raise percentages since 2017. The raise led to $9.55 in additional forward dividend income.
Late in the month, my only double-digit raise for October was delivered by Visa (V). It was a 13.56% hike. Also, this was my only raise this month that was bigger than the raise the previous year. Last year V provided a 13.46% raise. Due to the low yield V has, the raise didn’t translate to my biggest increase in forward dividend income for the month, but it was still very good, at $30.93.
My last raise in October showed up on the last day month (Halloween). AbbVie (ABBV) presented a 5.49% dividend hike, falling short of last year’s 5.81% raise. With ABBV being my largest dividend-paying stock, this modest raise percentage resulted in a hefty $54.32 increase to my forward dividend income.
After accounting for all my October dividend raises, my forward dividend income increased by an impressive $132.84. While this amount approached doubling the total from last month ($67.55), it didn’t quite compare to the total from October of last year ($169.36).
I’d have to invest $4,993.98 at my Portfolio’s current yield of 2.66% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.
Looking ahead to November, there’s some variance in what I might see. I expect to hear raise announcements from at least 4 companies, but as many as 7. I feel confident that Main Street Capital (MAIN), Automatic Data Processing (ADP), Nike (NKE) and Merck & Co. (MRK) will deliver. However, I’m less certain about Aflac (AFL), The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) and Enbridge (ENB), as these companies have announced in December, as opposed to November, as recently as last year. Four companies from my Portfolio have already announced a dividend raise for November, but I’ll save reporting on those for next month.
Dividends Due To New Investment
It was looking like ‘zero Portfolio moves’ was going to be my transaction summary for October. But in the final days of the month I ended up making a pair of buys to avoid the shutout.
One buy was a small addition to an existing Portfolio holding (TXN), while the other established a new Portfolio position (META). The latter was a sizeable investment compared to the former.
I made the TXN purchase considering that its stock price has dipped fairly significantly in the past couple of months. As for the META purchase, I initiated the position after the stock price took a post-earnings report tumble due to increased spending.
The details for these two October purchases can be found in the following post…
My buys resulted a rather large investment of $6,869.84 into my Portfolio. However, this only increased my forward dividend income by $32.36, primarily due to the low yield of META.
With TXN already part of my Portfolio, but META becoming a new holding, the number of stocks/funds in my Portfolio ticked higher by one to 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.
I posted another triple-digit addition to my forward dividend income in October. That’s every month so far this year, and 11 months straight overall. Accounting for all the sources, I brought home $226.13 of additional forward dividend income this month. This total was not only better than last month ($185.59), but also slightly better than the total from October of last year ($224.23). That’s progress I like to see!
Providing a triple-digit amount of $132.84 for additional forward dividend income, Dividends Raises was the leading contributor. That’s the first time since April that Dividend Raises led. That’s quite a drought considering Dividend Raises is usually my best source more often than not.
Reinvested Dividends came through as my 2nd-best source in October, delivering $60.93 of additional forward dividend income. While this amount couldn’t top the record $84.08 from last month, it easily bested last October’s total of $38.43.
For the 2nd month in a row, the contribution from Investment of Capital lagged. The $32.36 added was the 2nd lowest monthly contribution from this source in 2025, only topping the $13.48 from May. Despite this, Investment of Capital is by far the strongest contributor to my annual additional forward dividend income total this year.
I’ve got two months remaining in 2025 to pad the record amount of additional forward dividend income that I’ve already totaled in 2025 ($2,676.30). I think there’s a strong possibility that I get my total past $3K before the year ends, with record totals from both the ‘Reinvested Dividends’ and ‘Investment of Capital’ sources.
Progress Charts
The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.
October was another month in 2025 with dividend income in excess of $1.5K. Only May has failed to deliver more than $1.5K this year, and that was due to a dividend shifting from May to June.
On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.
I will surpass my dividend total from 2024 sometime in November (which is what normally happens). Then December is all about setting a new dividend record. I see another Y-axis adjustment for the chart on the horizon!
Summary
Another solid month of dividends is in the books now that October has passed. My Portfolio raked in a sweet $1,629.47 in dividends. My YoY growth was a nice 12.59%, even though this came up shy of my 15% target percentage.
I recorded 24 dividend payments in my Portfolio this October. Six of those were triple-digit payments, with $143.32 from RPM being the largest. Only 2 of the 24 dividends were less than $24.
My Portfolio received 5 dividend raises in October. Unfortunately, just one reached a double-digit percentage (Visa – 13.56%). Still, all the raises translated into nearly $133 in forward dividend income.
Reinvesting my dividends almost produced another $61 in forward dividend income. This was my 2nd-best source in October.
If not for a couple of buys late in the month, my Portfolio would have been transaction-free for the month. However, I managed to buy a couple of shares of TXN and initiate a position in META before the month ended. These moves resulted in adding a little more than $32 in forward dividend income.
Tallying the contributions from all sources, just over $226 of forward dividend income was added to my Portfolio in October. This was my 11th straight month of triple-digit additional forward dividend income, and it padded my record total for 2025. I anticipate I might be able to eclipse $3K in annual additional forward dividend income before the year is over.
Have you noticed an uptick in the number of dividend raises received in October? What do you think about the raise percentages received in 2025? Please share in the Comments!
I have updated the Portfolio & Dividends pages in conjunction with this monthly update.
Congratulations on the 100 mark. I remember when your blog first started and thought it was cool there was another person near my age and in the same field. Looking forward to the next 100.
Just a note, Visa is a dividend growth machine! Absolutely amazing how consistently it delivers double digit increases.
Thanks, SDG! Let’s hope I make it to another 100 monthly dividend income posts… that’s a lot of work!
Visa has been awesome. I love stocks with impressive dividend growth. It turns those tiny yields from years ago into big paydays down the road. We just need to be patient.