Well, well, well.  Looks like another month has finally come to a close.  We are in the first couple of weeks of a new month, so you know what that means… it is time to post my monthly dividend income update.  What seems to be a recurring theme, Lanny beat me to the punch and published his February income summary last week.  I want to echo everything the commenters said about his month.  He crushed it and increased his February dividend income 43% compared to 2015.  That was with KMI’s dividend cut.  Congrats on the awesome month Lanny!    Internally, I created this competition to defeat Lanny in terms of a dividend growth rate each month.  43% is a high bar to surpass, so let’s see if my dividend income in February grew more than his.   Time to check out the results.

February Dividend Income Summary

First, before I display the numbers, I want to note that I am experimenting with a new layout.  Last month and many of the months before, I displayed my annual and quarterly dividend growth rate.   As one commenter pointed out, a quarterly comparison is not quite apples to apples due to the fact that companies do not necessarily pay a consistent quarterly income, which is a valid point.  In my portfolio, I have a semi-annual paying mutual fund and a semi-annual paying stock (DEO) that throw off many of the quarterly comparisons.   So for February, I am going to experiment with just showing the annual increase.  Since my chart has a few extra columns to work with, I will also show the percent increase (or decrease) in dividend income from each stock to see if the increase was related to re-invested dividends or a purchase/dividend increase/etc.   Let me know your thoughts on this new format or if you prefer the old layout.  I’m open to all suggestions here.  Now onto what you all came here to see.

In February, I received $136.04 in dividend income, a 29.02% increase from February 2015.  Darn, I didn’t beat Lanny this month.  While it is unfortunate, I am very pleased with the results.   It is hard to find a way to complain about a 29% annual increase in dividend income after all.   I’m kind of liking the growth rate comparison in the right column of the chart.  It is showing me here that  there have been a lot of events and transactions that have taken place over the last year that have impacted my February income.  Let’s see what some of the events were that caused this growth:

• In February 2015, I used the proceeds from the sale of my fateful ARCP investment to increase my stake in HCP and initiate an entry-level position in NWFL and CZNC.   I purchased these stocks after their Q1 2015 ex-dividend date so I didn’t receive my first payment from them until May.
• What’s funny about that last bullet point is that I have managed to add to my stake in CZNC and NWFL at different points throughout the last 12 months, which is why you are seeing dividend growth rates in excess of their annual dividend increases.  However, unlike the purchase discussed above, I made sure that I added to my position prior to the ex-dividend to capture the February 2016 dividend.  I added to my NWFL  stake in December 2015 and my CZNC stake  in January 2016.  Truth be told, this may not be the last time I add to my positions in both of these companies.
• While those were the positive events, there were two events that caused my income to decrease.  First, I sold my mutual funds back in January, so now I won’t be receiving my monthly pocket change from OIEIX.   Second, the KMI smack down that impacted so many of us.  February is the month where the pain of the KMI dividend cut became real.  My income from KMI compared to last year decreased ~50%.  Blah!  Luckily for me (and not so lucky for Lanny), I did not receive the double whammy since I do not own any shares of BBL.   Definitely a dark spot here, but we have come out better investors from the events and the companies came out of the dividend cuts with stronger balance sheets.  

Dividend Increases and Additions to my portfolio

Phew.  Time to emerge from the detail above.   For only receiving dividend income from 6 stocks in February, it sure seems like I had a lot going on.   Well, there were plenty of other transactions that will impact my forward dividend income in the month.  I wanted to quickly summarize the events and summarize the impact they had on my portfolio.

I purchased two stocks this month that will pay a dividend in the third month of the quarter.  The first stock I added to my portfolio was Pfizer, which already paid me a $30.00 dividend at the beginning of the month.   The second stock was a stock that we were obsessed with on this website during the entire month….T.Rowe Price.  I purchased 47 shares of TROW, which will pay me a quarterly dividend of $25.38 at the end of the month.  Man I can’t wait to write-out my March 2016 Dividend Income Summary!

In addition to the purchased stocks during the month, I received two dividend increases during the month.  ADM increased their quarterly dividend income from $.28/share to $.30/share, a 7% increase, and DEO increased the first semi-annual dividend payment from $1.27/share to $1.30/share, a 2.3% increase.  This is why dividend investing is so much fun…I love receiving dividend increases out of the blue.

Summary

Am I pissed I didn’t beat Lanny? Of course.  Am I pissed that my dividend income from KMI slashed their dividend and reduced my February payment by 50%?  Who wouldn’t be?  But honestly, the positives of the month heavily outweigh the negatives. The bottom line is that I saw a double-digit increase in my monthly dividend income figure from the prior period.  Plus, as highlighted in the last section, I was able to use the month of February to make some moves and set the table for future increases in my monthly dividend income.    Now that February has come to a close, let’s hope that Lanny, me and all of you can carry this momentum into March and realize similar growth rates in this heavy dividend month.

Did you have a strong month of February?  Were you impacted by the KMI dividend cut?   What are your thoughts on the new format?  Did you find all the information relevant or would you add/delete anything?   I’m looking forward to reading and responding to your comments!

-Bert