It’s a new year and already my dividend growth portfolio is hard at work making me money. I have been very hands off of my portfolio for the last several months. But that’s also the beauty of dividend growth investing. Even though I did not add any significant funds to it, it continued to grow by itself. The dividend reinvestment did it’s job and took care of everything for me. My advice to any new dividend growth investors out there is to buy quality companies and let them do their thing. I never onced worried about my portfolio while I was predisposed.
January is a very typical month for me in terms of dividend payouts. Next month I plan on giving the portfolio a much needed injection of capital. It’s been too long since I bought anything substantial.
On to the update!
Summary
- $250.64 in dividends for the month of January.
- I added +$16.53 to my annual income.
Beginning Balance: $118,981.85
End Balance: $116,150.70
Change: -2.4%
Account Deposits
No deposits for the month of January. All stock purchases were done through DRIPs or leftover funds.
Total: +0.00
Dividend Payouts
| CPB | $21.86 |
| OZK | $12.06 |
| GE | $0.25 |
| CSCO | $6.65 |
| O | $13.27 |
| MAIN | $12.00 |
| CAH | $35.12 |
| NGG | $9.61 |
| STWD | $22.08 |
| MO | $77.28 |
| MRK | $12.20 |
| SDIV | $13.08 |
| EMN | $15.18 |
| Total: | $250.64 |
Another great thing I like to do is to look back and compare the dividend payout amount versus the previous year. I love seeing it grow year over year. If we take my January 2019 value of $215.81 and compare it to $250.64; my January payout has increased by 16%!
Purchases
- Bought 1 WRK @ 38.91
Westrock Company is a multinational provider of paper packaging solutions. It’s currently providing a 4.7% dividend yield and has a dividend streak of 4 years. It currently sits at a payout ratio of 56% with a 3-year dividend growth rate of 8%. This adds +$1.86 to my annual income. - Bought 2 MDP @ 31.45
Meredith Corporation is a Local and National diversified media company. It’s currently providing a 7.6% dividend yield and has a dividend streak of 26 years! It currently sits at a payout ratio of 35% with a 5-year dividend growth rate of 5.8%. This adds +$4.60 to my annual income.
DRIPS
We now live in a world of free trades and fractional investing. So some people believe there is less value in Automatic Dividend Reinvestment. I can understand what they are saying but I don’t want to penalized my stocks for doing good. With that being said, I do have a few stocks with DRIP turned off. I take that capital and allocate it where I see fit. But I love that the majority of my portfolio is automatic. It definitely takes a heavy load off my shoulders.
- Bought 0.447 CPB @ 48.9276
This adds +$0.62 to my annual income. - Bought 0.438 OZK @ 27.553
This adds +$0.42 to my annual income. - Bought 0.136 CSCO @ 48.9151
This adds +$0.19 to my annual income. - Bought 0.174 O @ 76.2358
This adds +$0.48 to my annual income. - Bought 0.268 MAIN @ 44.8377
This adds +$0.65 to my annual income. - Bought 0.651 CAH @ 53.9589
This adds +$1.24 to my annual income. - Bought 0.168 NGG @ 57.351
This adds +$0.51 to my annual income. - Bought 1.521 MO @ 50.8146
This adds +$5.11 to my annual income. - Bought 0.136 MRK @ 89.5804
This adds +$0.33 to my annual income. - Bought 0.199 EMN @ 76.2339
This adds +$0.52 to my annual income.
Total = +$10.07 added to my annual income!
Sells
None.
Summary
It’s easy to look at my previous month of high dividend payout and not be as excited that January is less than half. I am entirely grateful to be able to invest in high quality companies. I don’t look to even out my dividend income on a per-month basis. I like buying great companies at fair prices. Whenever they pay out is fine by me. Of course, I’m not using the dividend payouts for income just yet, so I can allow my shares to grow over time.
If you’re curious about my entire dividend growth portfolio—check it out here.
Thanks for reading everybody! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below. See you next month!
16% is a remarkable year over year growth. I wish I had a broker where I could reinvest dividends into partial shares. Don’t get discouraged by the drop in overall portfolio value. You’re in for the long run.
You’re right. Drops in the portfolio shouldn’t bother any long term dividend growth investor. Truth be told, I’m hoping for a bigger overall dip so I can get an even better value on dividend stocks. Thanks for reading!
Good job. 16 percent is great. Most of my drips are off as i prefer to collect cash and spend as needed and it has really helped my portfolio, i drip when i get 10,000 in a stock or i dont plan on adding to it for awhile. Drops are nothing to worry about either as the bigger your portfolio grows the bigger the drops but that means if you buy the drops you will buy more. Great list of companies led by MO this month. keep it up.
Thanks for reading Doug!