Three Fantastic Dividend Raises: February 2018

The beauty of dividend growth investing is…well, the dividend growth.

Most companies reward their shareholders with predictable yet modest (think low single digit) dividend raises every year. Nothing wrong with that, and there are plenty of those companies to choose from on David Fish’s list of Dividend Champions, Contenders and Challengers.

However, this month something different happened.

In the span of about a week three companies in my portfolio announced significant double digit dividend increases.

In this post I go over these companies and their dividend increases, their ex-dividend dates and what these raises mean for my forward dividend.

The first company that delivered a positive dividend surprise for me was T. Rowe Price (TROW). The company boosted their dividend from $0.57 to $0.70, a 22.8% increase (see the purple bar in the figure below).

With my 25 shares of TROW, this means that my yearly dividend income will go from $57 to $70. The company will trade ex-dividend on March 14.

My second February dividend booster came from Cisco Systems (CSCO). Encouraged by the new US Tax Law, the company started to repatriate some of it’s overseas billions. Shareholders like me are benefiting from this move as some of this cash gets deployed in the form of buy-backs and dividend raises.

Cisco Systems  already a hefty dividend payer as compared to the broader tech sector - raised their dividend from $0.29 to $0.33, a 14% increase.

As I hold 100 shares of Cisco in my portfolio, this boost makes for easy math. My yearly payout will go from $116 to $132. The company will trade ex-dividend on April 4.

The last dividend boost I want to highlight here is the one from Abbvie (ABBV). The company, famous for it’s best selling drug Humira, declared a quarterly dividend of $0.96 per share, a 35% (!) increase compared to it’s prior dividend of $0.71.

Going forward, this monster dividend raise make my 40 shares of Abbvie yield $153.60, quite a jump from the prior $113.60. Abbvie will trade ex-dividend on April 12.

Three fantastic dividend increases bodes well for the rest of 2018. Just these raises alone provided a $69 dollar increase of my yearly forward dividend income. As their ex-dividend dates are still a few weeks away, investors are able to benefit from these increased pay-outs.

How is your February so far, and its dividend increases?  Leave a comment/reply to share your thoughts!

Dividend Update: January 2018

It’s time for my favorite type of post: a tally of the dividends I received in the prior month.

Given my strategy of DGI, it is really the dividend payouts that I care about. For each of the companies I invest in, I like to see a steady and growing stream of dividend payouts.

So how did I do in January?

Last month 12 companies sent me a dividend payout, adding up to a total of $298.

Starting the year with almost $300 in received dividends is a nice start on my way to my goals for 2018.

It also comes down to about $10 a day for doing absolutely nothing but collecting the dividend.

The following table shows the tickers of the companies that made a January 2018 dividend payout to my portfolio.

It features the dividend amount I received and any change in payout as compared to the last payout moment.

TickerDividends ReceivedDividend per Share Change
KMB$33.95
HASI$16.50
DIS$19.507.69%
EQR$10.08
VTR$12.641.94%
WPC$70.700.50%
STAG$5.88
LHO$31.50
CAH$30.06
CSCO$29.00
CLDT$11.00
BNS$25.594.32%

 

The fact that 12 companies sent me dividend checks is great in and of itself. But out of those 12 there were 4 companies who decided to raise their pay-outs. Really putting the growth in Dividend Growth Investing here.

Within those dividend increases the one from Disney (DIS) stand out.

The ‘House of the Mouse’ delivered an almost 8% dividend raise. Having recently announced good numbers again (in particular on Theme Parks) and yet another Star Wars franchise - this company will do well for decades to come. Happy shareholder over here, and looking forward to keep collecting growing dividends.

Comparing the dividend payout of January 2018 to January 2018 (below) shows an increase from $223 to $298- YoY growth of 34%.

How was your January and its dividend?  Leave a comment/reply to share your thoughts!