| ticker | total_payout |
|---|---|
| MO | $17.64 |
| MDT | $13.12 |
| KO | $12.71 |
| RSG | $12.15 |
| KMB | $8.56 |
| IFF | $8.25 |
| CINF | $7.69 |
| CAH | $7.29 |
| CSCO | $7.20 |
| PPL | $6.22 |
| EMN | $5.94 |
| $106.77 |
I received $106.77 in taxable July 2020 dividend income. Not too much excitement in the dividends this month, but I actually had an active month otherwise.
Up until now, all my charts and tables have been screenshots from spreadsheets. My spreadsheets have been getting a little unwieldy with every month that gets added. I made a goal last month to replace at least one chart with Python code, and I was actually able to automate a few of them.
I have to look into how this will display on a phone. I may need to change to a wider WordPress theme. But, on a desktop, the charts can now be hovered over to see extra details. I’m super excited about this! You can also click and drag to zoom in on the charts, and double-click to zoom back out.
My code is not polished, but I’m going to go ahead and use the new stuff this month. I plan to keep making improvements. If I can get to the code somewhere I’m more proud of, I’ll share it. I’m also still learning how WordPress handles HTML table widths in preview mode vs published.
My other excitement this month came in the form of four sales and one new holding. More on that later!
Dividend Growth
| percent_increase | annual_increase_dollars | |
|---|---|---|
| CAH | 1.00% | $0.29 |
| MDT | 7.41% | $3.52 |
| Total | $3.81 |
A little underwhelming. CAH has been an underperformer since I first bought it. I’ll hold on a while yet. CAH hasn’t been a great performer for me, but I generally like anything having to do with medical supplies.
Speaking of medical suppliers, MDT came through strong. It’s my third increase from MDT, but it is a relatively newer arrival to my portfolio. I love having this aristocrat in my portfolio.
Altogether, I would have to contribute about $195 at my current portfolio yield of 1.95% to generate this much additional income. Not great but I’ll take it! On a side note, my portfolio has nearly recovered to its all-time highs and my portfolio yield has come back down. 1.95% is a bit on the low side, but I’m including 0% from DIS and BA nowadays.
Forward Dividend Income
My new contributions this month are a little wonky because of my sales. I traded in some higher yielders (and WFC) for a new holding with about a 2.5% yield. My graph still isn’t the greatest with negative months, but I essentially lost $36 dollars of annual income in my buys/sells, and gained $6 in my raises/reinvestments.
Overall, my total annual income dropped a net $30.
I like to think I am a buy-and-hold investor, but I have made some purchases I wouldn’t make today. The top end of my portfolio has grown steadily with new contributions and appreciation, but the bottom end of my portfolio had become a bit stagnant at best.
I once read, “Water the growers and pull the weeds.” I love that analogy, and decided to pull some weeds this month.
| Year: 2019 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dividend_increases | $7.00 | $3.10 | $36.71 | $4.55 | $5.99 | $18.01 | $3.01 | $5.04 | $13.20 | $6.44 | $2.61 | $29.35 | $135.01 |
| dividend_reinvestments | $2.30 | $1.96 | $5.59 | $2.08 | $2.32 | $4.94 | $2.35 | $2.05 | $8.64 | $2.27 | $2.43 | $12.52 | $49.45 |
| new_contributions | $-0.13 | $-8.92 | $-2.10 | $1.00 | $-0.24 | $-1.23 | $187.80 | $275.55 | $145.21 | $92.55 | $145.85 | $29.84 | $865.18 |
| Total | $9.17 | $-3.86 | $40.20 | $7.63 | $8.07 | $21.72 | $193.16 | $282.64 | $167.05 | $101.26 | $150.89 | $71.71 | $1,049.64 |
| Year: 2020 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dividend_increases | $1.44 | $8.76 | $18.08 | $-52.15 | $-22.73 | $31.08 | $3.81 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $-11.71 |
| dividend_reinvestments | $2.68 | $2.28 | $9.92 | $2.48 | $2.33 | $10.96 | $2.51 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $33.16 |
| new_contributions | $1.44 | $17.08 | $37.57 | $5.43 | $8.86 | $3.23 | $-35.97 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $37.64 |
| Total | $5.56 | $28.12 | $65.57 | $-44.24 | $-11.54 | $45.27 | $-29.65 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $59.09 |
Sales – WFC, FLO, PPL, and PFG
Sold 19 shares of Wells Fargo (WFC) @ $23.98/share
I didn’t have much trouble selling WFC when they announced their dividend cut. I originally purchased WFC years ago thinking their bad news was priced in, and there would be a good chance things could turn around. This was even despite my own bad personal experiences as a retail customer with Wells Fargo. Unfortunately, they haven’t seemed to get it together
Altogether, I got in for about $54/share, out for $24/share. I held it for over three years, and collected a few dividends. Can’t win them all.
Sold 15 shares of PPL Corp (PPL) @ $25.59/share
PPL is a popular DGI utility, but their growth has barely qualified as growth lately. If I’m calculating correctly, PPL’s 10-year compound annual growth rate is 1.72%. Their last three increases over the last three years: 0.61%, 0.12%, 0.48%. This was one of my first purchases, and I couldn’t picture myself adding to it any time soon. After selling WFC, I thought it would be nice to clean up the bottom of my portfolio a bit.
I held PPL for almost four years, and watched it go from $34.14 to $25.59.
Sold 9 shares of Principal Financial (PFG) @ $42.31/share
PFG was another one of my earliest purchases. I loved the quarterly increases they had going on. Unfortunately, they couldn’t maintain their share price during the time I held on.
PFG had an impressive increase streak going a few years ago. Even now, their 8-year compound annual dividend growth is 13%. Unfortunately, it has slowed down to under 3% in the last two years. Share price has deteriorated from $65.11 at the time I bought it.
Sold 4 shares of Flowers Foods Inc (FLO) @ $21.94/share
I actually came out ahead after purchasing FLO for $20/share in early 2017 and collected a few dividends along the way. I just never felt overly confident in this holding for whatever reason. I like my HRL and IFF holdings in this space more, and added FLO to the cleanup pile.
Purchases – BLK, HRL, and VTI
Purchased 2 shares of BlackRock (BLK) @ $565.58/share
After giving up on my WFC holding, I wanted to reallocate some back into the financial space. Instead of another retail banker, I decided on an investment management company – BlackRock. I can only wish I bought BLK back in 2017 instead of WFC! I might be wrong again, but BLK has some good momentum, and still only a 48% payout ratio.
Purchased 16.77 shares of Hormel Foods (HRL) @ $48.02/share
Hormel has been one of the most neglected holdings in my portfolio. I’ve mostly used it as a low-share-price option when I would reinvest my own dividends. I picked up one share here and there for years, but finally added a nice chunk to bring it into my top 10. It definitely deserves to be there.
* The dividend drop was due to a split, but the share price has the split accounted for
Purchased 3 shares of Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTI) @ $157.01/share
I’m doing my best to stay disciplined, and funny enough, my individual picks are not beating my VTI holding. I’m glad I have some AMZN and TSLA representation right now.
Hormel has been one of the most neglected holdings in my portfolio. I’ve mostly used it as a low-share-price option when I would reinvest my own dividends. I picked up one share here and one share there for years, but finally added a nice chunk to bring it into my top 10.
Head on over to my portfolio page if you’d like to see what companies pay me in other months!
Dozer –
Cheers to “better” and that is what it appears you are doing to your portfolio, making it better.
-Lanny
I hear you about the size of screen shots, Dozer. I’ve noticed the size of my backup files growing over the months, but they still seem manageable.
I tried hovering over your new charts and liked the details. Nice work.
Like me, you seem to have struggled to generate additional forward dividend income over the past few months. Those dividend cuts/suspensions have such a negative impact that they overwhelm any normal dividend raise we may get. Hopefully, we are on the tail end of those reductions. I’m a bit worried about my XOM holding in the coming months.
I like the weeds you pulled in July. WFC, PPL and PFG make total sense to me – declining share prices and little dividend growth (or cuts in the case of WFC). I could see you holding FLO, but if you don’t have a plan to grow it with the rest of your portfolio, then cutting it loose is understandable. I’m holding WFC for now, but it’s in consideration for sale, especially if I want to harvest the loss for tax purposes before year’s end That may come to pass.
I like all your purchases this month. BLK and HRL have been good to me. VTI is a core holding for me, although I hold it outside of my dividend portfolio.
Just when I thought I had it all figured out, I have to account for splits! I would have had to do this eventually. We will see how flexible my setup is. Thanks for checking out the hovering!
It has been a grind. I can’t complain too much about a steady forward dividend income line. Hopefully DIS reinstates at some point. I agree, I think we are on the tail end of the reductions.