Lanny said it best in his stock purchase article…the month of May was actually wild! Every day presented a new twist, turn, and market swing. I would transfer cash to my brokerage and get ready to make a purchase. Then boom, the market would swing upward. Despite the madness, the dividend income continued to flow. After all, that’s part of the beauty of dividend investing. Lanny published great dividend income results this month. As always, he is a tough act to follow. Especially when he announces a 48.8% YOY dividend increase. But I’ll give it my best shot. It is time to review my May Dividend Income summary!
Bert’s May Dividend Income Summary
I received $505.13 in dividend income this month. This was a 47.02% increase compared to last year! To be honest, I was very excited to eclipse the $500 mark this month. A fun threshold to cross to say the least. The following table breaks down the individual companies that paid me a dividend in May. The “W” denotes a dividend received in my wife’s account:
Here are some quick comments about the companies that paid me this month:
- Compared to last year, there were several new companies that paid me a dividend (ABBV and WRK) and several companies where I added to my position last year (PG, SBUX, and CVS). This was the predominant reason my dividend income increased compared to 2018.
- Looking at the chart, it is crazy how large of a total dividend my wife and I receive from AT&T. We received nearly $118 from the telecom giant. Each quarter, our dividend covers one months cable and internet bill ($98). Hopefully it’ll cover the entire quarter later in the year since we will be cutting the cord later in 2019.
- DWDP continues to be the most infuriating company to figure out and follow. The company’s three-way stock split has been “interesting” to follow to say the least. I’m having a difficult time allocating my cost basis and adjusting my forward dividend income accordingly. But this month, I’ll take the $5.42 dividend.
May Portfolio News and Updates
In this section, I’ll review two different ways that my forward dividend income increased during the month: dividend increases and investment activity. In the first table I will review dividend increases. We are always following dividend increases, regardless of whether or not we own the stock. Heck, we publish a monthly article summarizing and predicting dividend increases! See the latest published of that monthly article here.
May was a lot slower than April on the dividend increase front. But I still managed to add $19.64 in dividend increases from dividend increases. The largest of the increases was CAT. Despite the trade issues with China, CAT still delivered a very strong dividend increase. This amount exceed my expectation for sure. LEG’s dividend increase was right in line with recent history. Interestingly, the $9.02 dividend increase would all me to add an additional .25 shares (appr.) via DRIP over the next year at the company’s current share price. Think about that for a second and visualize that dividend snowball rolling and growing larger.
This next table will summarize my stock purchases for the month. One purchase occurred in our traditional brokerage account and the other in my wife’s retirement account.
The last month presented several investment opportunities on red days in the market. I tried to focus my purchase activity on large, blue chip companies that passed the three metrics of our Dividend Stock Screener (P/E Ratio < Market, Payout Ratio <60%, History of Increasing Dividends). Here is a brief discussion about the purchases.
- Exxon Mobil (XOM) – I started a position in Exxon last year and have been looking for the right time to add to my position. The Dividend Aristocrat is trading below the market and has a forward payout ratio of 64%. The yield was over 5% at the time of my purchase. An easy decision in my mind. In total, I now own 30.312 shares of XOM and my wife owns 13.241.
- UPS (UPS) – UPS was featured on Lanny’s watch list. Like XOM, I had been adding to my UPS position since 2018. The price continued to fall and the time to act was now. UPS has a P/E ratio of X and a forward P/E ratio of 48%. UPS isn’t an Aristocrat; but the company has some strong dividend dividend increases lately. I now own 36 shares of the company.
- Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) – Last, but not least, a Dividend Aristocrat that is getting twisted around because of the trade war. ADM was trading at the company’s 52-week low and their dividend yield crossed 3.5%. With a payout ratio below 60%, this was a perfect time to lower my cost basis in ADM.
The three companies were all companies that I already owned. In total, the purchases, along with 401(k) contributions, added $125.23 of dividend income to my forward dividend income.
Summary
Well. Despite a turbulent stock market, we were able to turn it into a positive. By earning $500 in dividend income, along with adding over $140 in dividend income via stock purchases and dividend increases, 2019 continues to be a very positive year! But now is not the time to stop being aggressive. Rather, just the opposite. It is time to kick this into overdrive and review every expense. It is time to make EVERY DOLLAR COUNT. And it is time to find every freaking Financial Freedom Product under the sun that will help us earn an additional dollar or two to invest. The goal is financial freedom folks, so let’s get there ASAP!
How did you perform in May? What companies increased dividend payments for you this month? Did you purchase any stocks?
Bert