April 2017 Dividends

Hello everyone,

So all my April 2017 dividends are in, and there actually a couple days left in April, so I figured it would be good to get a jump on my dividend report.

Taxable Accounts
Walmart (WMT) - $1.53
Cardinal Health (CAH) - $7.18
Prospect Capital (PSEC) - $20.20
Cisco Systems (CSCO) - $11.02
New Residential (NRZ) - $18.72

Taxable Account Total: $58.65

Roth IRA Account
Cardinal Health (CAH) - $5.91

Roth IRA Account Total: $5.91

Overall Dividend Income for April 2017: $64.56

Forward 12-month Projected Dividend Income: $1,732.35


My April Buys:
Cardinal Health (CAH) - 6 shares
CVS Health (CVS) - 6 shares
Lazard Ltd (LAZ) - 2 shares
Qualcomm (QCOM) - 3 shares
VF Corporation (VFC) - 9 shares
Williams-Sonoma (WSM) - 6 shares
W.W. Grainger (GWW) - 1 share

For April I decided to take advantage of some pullbacks to either start or add to some positions. I also received my yearly bonus at the end of March, so I put that money to work in April to give that dividend train a little more fuel!

The fiance and I haven't started our joint account to save for the 2018 wedding yet, so in the meantime, I figured I'd load up on the DGI holdings, while I can. Though not ideal, if we need to, we can draw from it later. We're hoping we won't need to.

Going forward to May, I am interested in adding to my positions of GWW, QCOM, and CVS. I also have my eye on ABBV (Abbvie) as a potential new position for May


My Thoughts on the Month:
I can't sugarcoat it, April is part of my leanest group of months for the year (January, April, July, October).

My portfolio is not well-balanced in dividend payout timing across the months of the year. They are mainly stacked for the March, June, September, and December payouts. In these months I should be approaching, if not exceeding, $200. The February, May, August, November are not too far behind and put up a decent showing. April, however, is quite lean, as it has not even come close to eclipsing $100 yet.

This is ok, because I know over the next 2 months, higher dividend income is there, awaiting to be summarized. Also, because of pullbacks with Cardinal Health in April, I was able to add to my positions, so when July comes around, the number should increase,

Let's take a look at the Dividend Payment History:

Month	2014	2015	2016	2017
January		$14.38	$14.42	$70.45
February		$49.07	$50.38	$112.01
March		$50.22	$52.16	$182.28
April		$10.83	$27.91	$64.56
May		$46.52	$59.42
June	$6.69	$47.51	$90.97
July	0	$18.99	$51.37
August	$33.96	$50.11	$86.07
September	$54.75	$55.61	$101.70
October	$10.94	$14.42	$72.53
November	$48.79	$50.11	$103.31
December	$63.55	$49.89	$168.03

...and represented graphically:







Looking at the Year/Year and Quarter/Quarter comparison, I see there is good news and not so good news:

Y/Y:
My April 2016 dividend income was $27.91, and a year later it has increased 131.3% to $64.56! If you can't tell, this is the good news.

Q/Q:
In the previous quarter, my dividend income for January 2017 was $70.45. Yeah, this is the not so good news (cue the Darth Vader theme).

Dividend Income has actually decreased -8.4% since January 2017. I haven't sold any of these holdings, so how can this be?

One culprit, you could say, is Disney (not really a culprit, but simply a reason). Disney doesn't pay their dividends quarterly, they pay every 6 months instead. Their last payment was in January 2017 ($8.58), and so obviously that payment did not come in April.

In also some of the previous quarters, I had reaped the benefits of late ETF payments for the March/June/September/December months, and some had spilled over to the following month. No such luck this time!

With these 2 factors contributing, it doesn't look so bad, other than the fact that this group of months really lag behind the other months. This happens as balanced months is not my main goal, it is purchasing shares in great companies at a good value. Sometimes that value in present in companies that pay in certain months and not others.

One upcoming bright spot, as mentioned earlier, is that later in April, I added some shares to my CAH holdings, on the big drop after they announced a lower guidance. It offered a better price, and so I jumped in, as I feel good about the company over the long haul (people are going to need their meds, both brand name and generics), so I feel good about the purchase.


In Conclusion:
So there you have it for April 2017, not my greatest month ever (that was March 2017), but with a deeper look into it, the progress is still there, and I will continue to move it forward.

How was your April 2017? Let me know below in the comments!