May 2018 Dividends

Hi everyone,

Thanks again for stopping by. It is now June, and of course time to summarize dividends received in the previous month. Let's get to it!

Taxable Accounts
Company	Symbol	Date	Amount
Verizon	VZ	5/1/2018	$2.36
AT&T	T	5/1/2018	$34.63
CVS Health	CVS	5/3/18	$17.00
Abbott Laboratories	ABT	5/15/18	$9.80
Procter & Gamble	PG	5/15/18	$5.74
Apple	AAPL	5/17/18	$5.11
Amerigas	APU	5/18/18	$25.74
Lazard Ltd.	LAZ	5/21/18	$9.24
Williams-Sonoma	WSM	5/25/18	$25.37
Taxable Accounts Total	$134.99
Roth IRA Account
Company	Symbol	Date	Amount
Omega Healthcare Investors	OHI	5/15/18	$20.29
Abbott Laboratories	ABT	5/15/18	$7.13
Roth IRA Account Total	$27.42
Overall Dividend Income Total	$162.41
Forward 12-month Projected Dividend Income Total			$2,018.03

May 2018 Transactions
Buys	Qty		Sells	Qty
PG	3		LB	4
CAH	4

May 2018 saw a little bit more trading activity than normal, due to the decision I made to sell out of my L Brands (LB) position. I had been thinking about doing this for a while, as I noticed they have not been increasing the dividend. As I looked at it last month, I realized that they had not raised it in 2 years. As a Dividend Growth Investor, having the dividend grow every year is a key component to the strategy, in addition to the sustained payout of the dividend, and any capital gains that occur. By the dividend not growing, a key part of the total return is removed. If a company decides to suspend dividend increases, I'll give them a year to get things sorted out, but once they get into their 2nd year and beyond, I start to give heavy consideration for selling.

Also factored in was the fact the existing dividend was looking less and less safe, with increasing payout ratios. I became concerned about their ability to cover the dividend. So I decided to sell my position (4 shares) even at a loss and reallocate to Cardinal Health (CAH) and Procter & Gamble (PG). True, it's not a huge amount that was allocated to LB, but I'd rather have it with more stable dividend payers and growers.

June will be a huge month, personally, as all the planning, culminates in my fiancee and I "tying the knot", as they say. Money is still being saved for final deposits, as well as a house down payment which will be in the future, a year or so after the wedding. As a result, I continue to dedicate most of my savings for these purposes, and then slowly adding to my positions where possible, to keep the dividend income growing. Thankfully, I won't have to raid any of my portfolio to pay for the wedding, but the house down payment may be a different story. We shall see as time goes on, and we start the house hunting process.

But I digress, let's take a look at May in relation to my dividend history:

Month	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
January		$14.38	$14.42	$70.45	$72.34
February		$49.07	$50.38	$112.01	$190.55
March		$50.22	$52.16	$182.28	$232.83
April		$10.83	$27.91	$64.56	$78.40
May		$46.52	$59.42	$132.14	$162.41
June	$6.69	$47.51	$90.97	$198.86
July	0	$18.99	$51.37	$168.64
August	$33.96	$50.11	$86.07	$156.46
September	$54.75	$55.61	$101.70	$226.17
October	$10.94	$14.42	$72.53	$79.06
November	$48.79	$50.11	$103.31	$158.18
December	$63.55	$49.89	$168.03	$234.71

...and of course in graphical form:






Qtr/Qtr:
Taking a look over the previous quarter, the dividend income has actually decreased from $190.55 to $162.41.

via GIPHY.com

Hold on! This is actually due to the special dividend that was paid out in February by Lazad (LAZ), which was $27.30, in addition to the regular dividend of $8.61. Also, in February there was a dividend payment from Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) of $11.21, which usually occurs in Jan-April-July-October. Occasionally it will spill over into the following month when it does not come by the end of the previous month. This time around, the TD dividend was paid at the end of April, so the May summary does not include it. The sum of the LAZ special dividend and the TD dividend from February comes to $38.51, which definitely more than makes up for the deficit. The decrease from last quarter comes out to -14.8%


Year/Year
A comparison with the previous year yields more satisfactory results. The dividend income rose from $132.14 to $162.41, resulting in an increase of +22.9%, which is much more pleasing to the eyes!

via GIPHY.com

So we keep going, increasing dividend income, at least from a yearly perspective. I will add fuel to the dividend train where possible, and keep logging my progress.

Thanks all for reading, and when you read my next update, I'll be officially a married man! Though it may come a bit delayed , as we will be on our honeymoon in early July. In any event, it's an exciting life event that will take place, and I look forward to it, as well as being done with the wedding planning process as a side benefit. Also, June will likely be a another record dividend income month, so it will be an exciting update all around.

So, how was your May? Let me know in the comments!