I received $111.62 in taxable dividend income for February 2021. I’m pretty happy about this! AAPL, TXN, LOW, and ACN are 4 of the top 8 individual holdings in my portfolio, so even though I don’t have as many payouts this month as others, I get some good payouts.
| ticker | total_payout_2021 | total_payout_2020 |
|---|---|---|
| ABBV | $19.50 | $17.70 |
| TXN | $17.34 | $15.30 |
| PG | $15.81 | $5.97 |
| ACN | $11.44 | $7.20 |
| LOW | $11.40 | $9.90 |
| VZ | $10.67 | $10.46 |
| HRL | $10.54 | $5.58 |
| AAPL | $8.20 | $7.70 |
| HAS | $4.08 | $4.08 |
| CL | $2.64 | $2.58 |
| SBUX | $0.00 | $10.66 |
| $111.62 | $97.12 |
Compared with last year, I have some organic growth from ABBV’s 10.2% raise and TXN’s 13.3% raise back in August. I’ve deliberately been building my PG holding up, and am starting to see some nice dividend returns there.
I noticed Starbucks typically pays dividends in February, but are instead paying in March this year. I’m not going to look it up further, I don’t mind little variations like that with the companies I hold.
Dividend Growth
| percent_increase | annual_increase_dollars | |
|---|---|---|
| HRL | 5.38% | $2.15 |
| ABBV | 10.17% | $7.20 |
| Total | $9.35 |
Only two raises this month, but I’m happy with both of them. I’m always impressed how ABBV manages to put out double-digit increases every year (or more).
At a 1.73% average portfolio yield, I’d have to invest $540 to generate this much additional income.
I have to point out that Hasbro is missing from this list of dividend increases for the ninth quarter in a row. This is a bit disappointing to me – they still pay a decent dividend, and it’s one of my smallest holdings, but I had higher DGI hopes when I first picked up some shares. One of the reasons for their stagnant dividend is that they have been making more investments into online gaming. I have no plans to sell, but no plans to grow my HAS holding either.
Forward Dividend Income
| 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 | $22.83 | $3.01 | $5.04 | $13.20 | $6.44 | $2.61 | $29.35 | $139.83 |
| dividend_reinvestments | $2.47 | $-12.99 | $3.47 | $2.02 | $2.05 | $4.22 | $1.80 | $1.60 | $6.79 | $1.78 | $1.78 | $9.57 | $24.56 |
| new_contributions | $-0.30 | $6.03 | $0.02 | $1.06 | $0.03 | $-0.51 | $188.35 | $276.00 | $147.06 | $93.04 | $146.50 | $32.79 | $890.06 |
| Total | $9.17 | $-3.86 | $40.20 | $7.63 | $8.07 | $26.54 | $193.16 | $282.64 | $167.05 | $101.26 | $150.89 | $71.71 | $1,054.46 |
| Year: 2020 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dividend_increases | $1.44 | $8.76 | $18.54 | $-52.15 | $-22.73 | $31.08 | $3.81 | $0.00 | $19.47 | $4.96 | $20.70 | $26.81 | $60.69 |
| dividend_reinvestments | $1.88 | $1.55 | $10.38 | $9.07 | $1.78 | $7.85 | $-3.23 | $2.50 | $8.02 | $1.57 | $2.07 | $9.03 | $52.47 |
| new_contributions | $2.24 | $17.81 | $37.11 | $-1.16 | $9.41 | $6.34 | $-30.23 | $11.93 | $-0.25 | $0.19 | $19.35 | $51.72 | $124.48 |
| Total | $5.56 | $28.12 | $66.03 | $-44.24 | $-11.54 | $45.27 | $-29.65 | $14.43 | $27.24 | $6.72 | $42.12 | $87.56 | $237.62 |
| Year: 2021 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dividend_increases | $1.08 | $9.35 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $10.43 |
| dividend_reinvestments | $1.61 | $1.62 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $3.23 |
| new_contributions | $68.26 | $59.71 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $127.97 |
| Total | $70.95 | $70.68 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $141.63 |
2021 is off to a consistent start. I’ve added about $71 in annual income each of the first two months, about $15 of which is entirely thanks to dividend increases and reinvestments (no work on my part)! I’ve been fortunate to have made some sizable increases both months and aim to keep that up.
Assuming we don’t have the wild ups and downs we had last year, I may surpass my entire 2020 performance just four months into 2021. We will see – lots of things can happen. I also have a few more house projects that need attention, so I’ll have to balance those against my portfolio goals.
Purchases – AAPL, MSFT, NDSN, NEE, RSG, TXN, UNH, VTI
Lots of purchase activity this month. Now that I’ve built up NEE (including this month), I’m sprinkling the rest of my contributions around the top of my portfolio.
Since I don’t use automatic reinvesting (aside from VTI), I want to make sure I’m giving attention to the best performers of my portfolio. It’s easy to ignore them when they are growing on their own, but I really do want to “water the growers.”
Purchased 1.0 shares of Apple (AAPL) @ $129.79/share
I enjoyed watching the split and having my shares go from 10 to 40 (even though it didn’t have any real effect on my portfolio). Unfortunately, I’ve neglected my AAPL holding while watching it grow after making only one purchase since 2017, which was in 2019. This is one small purchase to try to correct that.
Purchased 1.0 shares of Microsoft (MSFT) @ $242.14/share
Speaking of neglected holdings, MSFT has held nearly the top spot in my portfolio with almost no help from me. I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t added to MSFT since 2018 when it cost $106/share. That is way too long for a holding that deserves much more regular contributions.
Purchased 2.0 shares of Nordson (NDSN) @ $189.70/share
Ok, this is getting painful. Nordson has quietly been another one of my best performers. I began buying when it was about $109/share, but have only added to it once since 2017, when I added a single share in 2019. NDSN isn’t super flash with it’s dividend (currently yielding 0.81%), but my original purchase’s yield on cost is now up to 1.5% and growing. The share price steadily continues to climb.
Purchased 10.49 shares of Nextera Energy (NEE) @ $83.06/share
This puts NEE at #15 in my portfolio, below SBUX and above PG. After having it on my watchlist for a while, I’m glad to finally be on the NEE ride.
Purchased 2.0 shares of Republic Services (RSG) @ $90.72/share
RSG is one of my favorite companies on my list. Everyone needs garbage services!
Purchased 1.0 shares of Texas Instruments (TXN) @ $178.75/share
I keep looking at Broadcom on my watchlist, but I’m happy to keep adding to TXN.
Purchased 0.22 shares of United Health (UNH) @ $326.26/share
Just a small purchase with some leftover dividends.
Purchased 11.0 shares of Vanguard Total Stock Index Fund (VTI) @ $198.50/share
As much as I love the thrill of individual picks, I love having a good portion handled for me passively. I’m also glad to have some stocks I normally wouldn’t buy myself, like TSLA and SQ.