Recent Dividend Increases

moneytruckAs a dividend growth investor, one of the primary objectives I seek is passive dividend income from my investments that increases over the rate of inflation, annually. It’s always wonderful news when companies decide to reward loyal, long-term shareholders with a dividend raise. A dividend raise typically means operations are doing well, and management is confident enough about cash flow to give shareholders a raise. All in all, it’s a very good sign.

In addition, dividend raises from companies I own a stake in means my personal dividend income is increasing, thereby speeding the effects of compounding since I’ll be able to reinvest larger dividend payouts back into dividend growth stocks that are also regularly paying and raising dividends. It’s a truly wonderful cycle. And it just brings me that much closer to financial independence.

I try to keep my eyes peeled for dividend raises from companies I’m invested in, as well as companies on my watch list. Some recent dividend increases include:

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) recently gave shareholders a nice pay boost, increasing its quarterly dividend from $0.66 per share to $0.70 per share. This amounts to a 6.1% raise. Some might have expected more, but I’m happy anytime I receive 6.1% more income simply for investing in a high-quality business. I know I don’t get annual 6.1% raises routinely at my day job, that’s for sure. Furthermore, this marks the 52nd year of consecutive dividend raises for this healthcare giant. As this is my first $10,000 investment, I couldn’t be happier. The yield on shares after the raise is now 2.77%. JNJ is a core holding for me and I remain a very loyal and long-term shareholder.

Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) just yesterday declared their new dividend at $0.35 quarterly per share, a 16.7% increase from the old payout of $0.30 per share. This is now the sixth dividend raise since the company was forced to cut its payout during the height of the financial crisis in 2009. I continue to like the conservative management style of the bank, the focus on customer relationships, and the diversified operations. The yield on shares is now 2.42%.

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) recently raised its dividend for the 19th consecutive year. The new quarterly dividend of $1.10 per share is a 15.8% increase over the old payout of $0.95 per share. I’m a big fan of IBM, and it’s my only true tech holding right now. Although it’s not one of my larger investments, this is less because of the quality of IBM and more my natural tendency to be a bit shy around tech companies. Revenue growth hasn’t been impressive, but buybacks have been strong which has held up EPS growth as IBM continues to navigate its business away from hardware sales and into higher-margin software and enterprise solutions. The yield on shares now stands at 2.24% after the raise.

BP Plc (BP) (ADR) gave shareholders a second dividend increase in the last six months. The new quarterly payout of $0.585 is a 2.6% raise over the last declared dividend of $0.57 per share. This isn’t much of a raise, but it comes earlier than expected, perhaps raising hopes of more to come later this year. In addition, this is actually a cumulative increase of 8.3% YOY factoring in both recent dividend raises. And this is now the fourth payout increase since they reinstituted their dividend back in 2011 after cutting it on the heels of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. BP appears extremely committed to rewarding shareholders, and I currently see value in BP shares as I recently pointed out; however, risks loom large, especially in regards to their ownership in Rosneft and rising tensions in Ukraine. BP’s stock now yields 4.62%.

Travelers Companies Inc. (TRV) has now raised its dividend for 10 consecutive years. The recent increase of 10% comes as management rewards shareholders with a new $0.55 quarterly per share payout over the old rate of $0.50 per share. Shares in TRV appear cheap here, trading for a P/E ratio of 8.72 – below their 5-year average of 10.8. However, the yield leaves a bit to be desired at just 2.43%. I may at some point pick up shares in Travelers to compliment my other insurance holding in Aflac Incorporated (AFL), but only if the company looks solid after a lengthy analysis.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) boosted its quarterly per share dividend yesterday from $0.31 per share to $0.355 per share. This is a 14.5% increase for shareholders, and the 12th year in a row COST has given shareholders an increased dividend payout. While I like the business model, the yield at 1.23% (after the raise) and a P/E ratio at 26 precludes me from investing in the company right now. I prefer my retail plays in Target Corporation (TGT) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) for a number of reasons.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) earlier today increased its dividend by 9.5%. The new quarterly per share payout of $0.69 is a nice boost over the old rate of $0.63. The new yield on shares is 2.7%. This marks the 32nd consecutive year in which Exxon Mobil has given shareholders a pay raise. I’m a fan of Exxon Mobil, although it’s not as large of an investment as I’d like. So many stocks, so little capital! At any rate, scale and scope is very important when taking on massive energy projects and there is no publicly traded oil company larger than XOM.

Chevron Corporation (CVX), another high-quality oil supermajor, also raised its quarterly dividend today. The new rate of $1.07 per share  is a 7% increase over the old payout of $1.00. Chevron is right behind Exxon with its now 27-year streak of consecutive dividend raises. Another company I am a fan of, and I have a rather large investment (for me) in CVX. I see nothing I dislike here with Chevron and I see any significant pullback in shares as just an opportunity to add, depending on capital availability.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDS.B) (ADR) follows in the footsteps of its supermajor rivals and increased their quarterly dividend by 4.4% today. The new quarterly payout of $0.94 per share is a nice bump from the old rate of $0.90. The raise, while not as impressive as what we see with the other oil companies, is pretty nice considering that Shell already offers a very high yield on shares. This is now the third consecutive year of dividend raises from Shell after holding its dividend static for a few years. Shell offers a lot to like and is betting big on natural gas; however, they’ve also had some issues with major projects around the world. The yield is now 4.44% after this increase is reflected.

Full Disclosure: Long JNJ, WFC, IBM, BP, AFL, TGT, WMT, XOM, CVX, RDS.B

What’s your opinion on these raises? Are you a satisfied shareholder in any of the above companies? 

Thanks for reading.

Photo Credit: renjith krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Edit: Added Shell raise.

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76 Comments

  1. April was a great month for dividend growth investors. I also enjoyed JNJ, Wells Fargo, Chevron, and I believe Procter & Gamble raised as well. Now I just need to finish up my free monthly newsletter and we’ll put this month in the record books.

    Did you get to the beach last weekend. I was thinking of you, because summer is definitely here 🙂
    -Bryan

  2. Bryan,

    This month was indeed wonderful. It’s not often I publish two articles like this right in a row like this. But there’s plenty of material for it. 🙂

    I haven’t been to the beach in a while, unfortunately. But I plan on having some time for it soon. However, my girlfriend and I were in Naples this past weekend as we celebrated her birthday. Naples is a beautiful town! Very expensive, though.

    Hope all is well with the family!

    Best wishes.

  3. DM,

    This is too funny! Today I was watching CNBC and saw them report a 9.5% increase in XOM’s dividend. My first thought was Dividend Mantra. He’s going to love this and I bet he will write an article in the near future. And you wrote the article today!

    Awesome stuff!

    Ron

  4. Ron,

    Haha. That’s awesome that you thought of me. 🙂

    And I received a few emails from Seeking Alpha regarding dividend increases today. I was increasingly excited with each one!

    How can anyone not like being a dividend growth investor?!

    Best regards.

  5. Yes, yes. Good stuff. I’m long JNJ, XOM and CVX. Always enjoy a pay raise. Like another who posted a comment, I guessed you would be writing about the increases :-).

    I need to raise our current annual div income by another $2K. Then I will be rolling my 401K into an IRA and using it to buy DG stocks. If I can invest the IRA at a 3% yield or better I’ll have reached my income goal for retirement. These dividend increases don’t add a lot of money to our portfolios, but they are yet another step toward the goal line.

    Is entering dividend payments into Quicken considered to be a valid retirement hobby??

  6. Thanks for the news!

    Own a few of these 🙂

    COST yield is low, so I avoid it. I typically only own stocks that yield between 3-5%.

    Yield isn’t everything but if I can own 3,700 companies and still yield 1.7%, that’s pretty good I think with much less risk than just owning COST.

    Mark

  7. Jason,

    I own some Exxon shares too that I bought recently and I’m very happy with the 9,5% increase and my cost per share (90,15$). With the stock now trading at over 102$, Warren Buffett plus Jason Fieber as fellow shareholders, I’m glad to be in. My only concern about it is that I should have bought more shares of that wonderful company when they were recently on sale!

    I also received a 17,6% dividend increase on my Jean Coutu holding (PJC-a.to) today. Jean-Coutu is a very well-known pharmacy here in Canada and it’s also a dividend aristocrat. They were partly owner of Rite-Aid but they recently sold their stake in it. It permitted me to buy the stock at a discount just before they distributed 0,50$ per share resulting from that sale. With the rest of the cash they also bought 23 000 000 of their shares (almost the quarter). I bought it at 18,49$ and it’s now trading at around 22$ just a couple of months later. I’d say that I’m a very happy owner. The yield was quite low when I purchased it though… But Jean-coutu has increased it’s dividend agressively in the past five years and there is still a lot of room to increase it at that pace for the years to come.

    You’re lucky to have the sun and the beach. Here it’s grey and cold… It’s like a never-ending winter… At least these dividend increases have put a little sun in my day.

    Thanks

  8. This month has been epic for me, the first month in my entire journey where the organic dividend income increase is higher than the increase from contributions!

    This is also the month where we have exceeded $16,000 in annual dividend income, and it wouldn’t have happened without those awesome increases. The 16K, in conjunction with income from a couple of SEPPs (for a total of around 20K), will enable us to break free from the 9-5 grind in August!

    The power of dividends and dividend growth is real!

  9. I was just looking at CVX dividend history yesterday. The last dividend increase was from .90 to 1.00 . I was kinda hoping for a jump to $1.10 but a 7% raise is still great in my book.

  10. Hi Jason,

    I am reading your blog since the end of the year 2013. I startet to buy shares as well but the value of my portfolio is only around 1000€, yet. So I am really in the beginning and since I am a student it will take a bit of time to have my first six figures portfolio like you.

    I see that you start in 2010 with investing and since then everything went really well at the stock exchanges and had only one direction – up. We all know something will come up son or later …. I wonder how do you prepare for a stock market crises? How do you will deal with dividend cuts and less passive income? Are going to sell if a company will cut there dividends during a crisis?

    And how do you prepare yourself mentally if your 3 or 5 years hard earned portfolio drops like 30% or even 50%?

    Cant wait for your answer.

    All the best from Germany and keep it up!
    Tim

  11. IBM is definitly on my watchlist. The dividend is just 2% but when investing 10.000 $ now and holding the stock for 25 years, your stack will be worth $379,923 (15% dividend growth, 1% stock growth annually) 🙂 When keeping it for 30 years, it will make you $8,544,851 !! The power of compounding.

  12. I am so glad that I have some of the stocks that you mentioned above :)…. Let the money work for us..:).

  13. Chevron 7% raise was great news for me yesterday. I have several stocks in common with you Jason. To be precise we have in common BHP, Chevron, General Electric, Intel, KMI, Realty Income, Phillip Morris, AT&T and Walmart. That is 9 positions. My portfolio has 21 positions right now but I don’t plan to diversify as much as 46 as Jason. My plan is to get to around 30 positions followind an specific pattern.

    The rest of my portfolio can be found at http://www.dividendogma.com/cartera-de-valores/

  14. I own JNJ and CVX from that list. In fact, my only regret is that JNJ is my smallest position in my portfolio! This company is on a roll and I believe they will continue to grow (both in term of stock value and dividend growth).

    Overall, this earnings season is very positive for my portfolio. my YTD return is very interesting and the dividend payout keeps growing. Life is good during a bull market 🙂

  15. Own JNJ, BP, CVX, RDS.B and enjoying the increases that are so common in April. RDS.B actually “preannounced” their increase a couple of weeks ago, but however they release the information, I’ll be happy to take the money. 🙂

  16. I hold JNJ, BP, COST and CVX in my 401k, and am loving the raises. I just bought BP and tried to enroll in dividend reinvestment, but was told that it is not eligible because it is an ADR. I asked why my shares in UL qualified since they are also ADRs. I expect a call-back sometime next week.

    I understand the aversion to tech stocks, but I hold CSCO, GOOGL, and INTC. GOOGL doesn’t pay a dividend so, therefore, doesn’t meet your investment criteria. CSCO and INTC both pay over 3.3% and have P/Es of 14-15, though, and are solid companies that might be worth at least a small portion of your portfolio.

  17. Not sure why I do this, but I started thinking (in the back of my mind, anyway) about how much I’d have to invest in order to pay for certain things.

    For example, last week I went out for dinner/drinks with some friends and had a $30 tab (not bad at all), and was thinking I’d have to invest >$500 in T for a year to make it up in dividends.

    Man, life is expensive! Or maybe I’m just careless…

  18. Gee, hate to reply to my own post, kind of like talking to yourself, but I forgot to mention AAPL. I bought Apple when it was $350 and the iPad was announced. My oldest daughter and her fiance had told me a couple of months before the announcement that what they really wanted was something bigger than a cell phone, but smaller than a laptop, that they could surf the web with. So, the split and the increased dividends are much appreciated.

  19. Yeah, I agree. I was hoping for 10% as well. I’ll just consider that even 7% is far larger than the rate of inflation, so that’s a good thing.

  20. Ravi, what a wonderful observation! It’s funny because I went out with colleagues for an happy hour yesterday and it costed me 45$. I was super happy to get a nice dividend increase and I thought exactly the same thing… Life is expensive…

    So I guess I’m going to brew a fresh batch of homemade beer anytime soon and next time I’m going to invite them home for a bbq and a nice freshly brewed beer instead! It’s going to cost me the same but at least it’s going to taste a lot better than a 7$ commercial beer and the cheap frozen french fries they served us!

  21. Steve,

    Tallying and tracking dividends sounds like a very reasonable retirement hobby to me! 🙂

    I wish you the best of luck with your $2k in extra dividend income and reaching your retirement income goal. That’s very exciting stuff, my friend.

    And it’s nice to have you as a fellow shareholder in JNJ, XOM, and CVX.

    Take care.

  22. Mark,

    I hear you. If an entire index is yielding the same and will also allow for similar growth in the income then it might not make sense to buy one individual company. However, it’s nice to be able to control one’s own portfolio and avoid stocks that yield very little, thus allowing the entire portfolio to yield much more than an index.

    And I also typically own stocks that yield in that 3-5% range; however, I do have a few that yield much less, like MDT, ITW and IBM.

    Cheers!

  23. Allan,

    Haha. I think Buffett’s stamp of approval is much more important than mine. I’m a footnote of a footnote compared to him. 🙂

    And great job with the raises there. 17.6% is extremely generous. A few of those and you’re well on your way!

    Sorry to hear about the weather situation there. I know what gray and cold is – I grew up in Michigan, which is like that 6-7 months per year. And I’m actually crazy enough to contemplate moving back. I miss my family a lot. However, it’s pretty tough to leave behind the sunshine and palm trees, I tell you that!

    But, like you said, you have these dividend raises to brighten your world up a bit.

    Best wishes.

  24. Spoonman,

    That’s legendary stuff right there. Very awesome. When the income from the dividend increases alone outpaces what income you gain from your fresh capital contributions you know your snowball is now rolling all by itself. No more pushing necessary, which obviously leaves you with plenty of time and energy for other enjoyable activities!

    FI is just around the corner for you. Congratulations. 🙂

    I hope to join you in a few years here. Let us all know how the view looks from the top of the mountain!

    Best regards.

  25. Captain Dividend,

    Hey, more money is always better than less. However, I’ll take a 7% raise all day every day. It far outpaces inflation, and it allows us to compound our wealth that much faster. 🙂

    Drill, baby drill. Or something like that…

    Cheers!

  26. Tim,

    Thanks for stopping by and commenting! And I appreciate the readership. 🙂

    Congrats for getting off to such a great start while you’re still young. I wish I had started even younger than I did. But mistakes, while expensive, are valuable learning tools!

    As far as your question goes, cheaper stocks just means I can buy more dividend income with the same amount of money. As long as my dividend income isn’t being cut left and right I’ll be just fine. I think one always has to pay more attention to the cash flow. If you’re lording over your portfolio value and watching it change every day I have my doubts as to how well you’d do in a major correction. I focus on the passive dividend income. So for me, as long as that isn’t reduced significantly I have no problems with a major market pullback. That simply allows my rather limited capital to go much further, thereby increasing my dividend income that much faster. Of course, it’s easy to say all of this and much more difficult to actually execute. So it’s good that this blog is live, and if we see a correction in the next 3-5 years you’ll know for sure how I respond. 🙂

    Thanks for stopping by from Germany. Keep up the great work.

    Best wishes!

  27. kraaitje,

    I think IBM is a fine company. I’m a proud owner, and stuck to my guns when everyone was screaming sell not long ago. I see nothing wrong, and I’m impressed with their ability to adapt to changing trends in tech. The dividend growth is also extremely impressive. 🙂

    However, I doubt you’d only see 1% stock price appreciation if the dividend is growing at a 15% CAGR over 25 years, or else you’d see something crazy like a 25% yield. So the value would go down because you’re reinvesting into a more expensive stock. But the results would still be quite impressive if they’re able to maintain a streak like that. As a shareholder, I’m keeping my fingers crossed. But I also know it’s unlikely and I’ll be perfectly happy with 10% or so dividend growth over the next couple decades.

    Cheers!

  28. S Arun,

    Absolutely! I want my money to one day do all the working for me. That way I can pursue ventures other than full-time work. That’s the name of the game. 🙂

    Money can work harder than I ever could. Plus, it works 24/7 and never calls in sick!

    Take care.

  29. Jose,

    Sounds like a great plan there. 30 stocks would be a very nice portfolio, indeed, assuming wide diversification is there.

    And it’s great to have you as a fellow shareholder in some of those fine companies. I’m a fan of all of them for different reasons. They’re like children: I love them all equally (mostly!), but in different ways. 🙂

    Take care.

  30. Mike,

    JNJ has indeed been on a tear. Usually, this would bug me because it means I can’t reinvest at more advantageous prices. However, JNJ is already a large portion of my portfolio, so even if it were much cheaper I probably wouldn’t be buying a lot more. I loaded up on it right from the start. 🙂

    Glad to hear you’re having such success. It’s certainly wonderful to be a dividend growth investor these days with many companies firing on all cylinders and the dividend boosts coming around like clockwork.

    Best wishes.

  31. JC,

    Nice! Sounds like we both had an incredible April. April usually brings showers, but in our case it brings dividend showers. 🙂

    Cheers.

  32. S.B.,

    I see you’re a fan of the oil majors as well! I’m in good company. 🙂

    Yeah, I seen that with RDS. I actually forgot about it until I got a late email from Seeking Alpha last night. I then edited it in. Wells Fargo did the same by announcing the dividend raise before it was officially declared.

    At any rate, it’s more money. And more money is very good!

    Cheers.

  33. KeithX,

    I hear you on tech stocks. Most investors are fine investing in these companies. I’ll have to take a good look at CSCO soon. The yield is nice and the valuation seems fair.

    However, I sold INTC not long ago after holding shares since 2011. This was due to their lack of dividend increases. I can’t be a dividend growth investor with no dividend growth. And while I’m open to giving a pass if it’s a temporary setback, INTC hasn’t peeped a word about it. So I can only assume management doesn’t care about it. At least they hadn’t said a word when I sold. That could have changed by now, but I no longer follow the company.

    Best regards!

  34. PIM,

    Very nice! ARCP could be volatile here in the short term, but I think we’ll both be very happy shareholders over the long haul. Those huge monthly dividends sure have a nice calming effect. 🙂

    Best regards.

  35. Ravi,

    I do the same thing. It’s a gift and a curse, I suppose.

    Every time I spend money – and I mean every time – I go through a little calculation in my head as to how much passive income that money could have otherwise bought, and also what kind of investment is necessary to cover the expense on a recurring basis. It’s scary when you think of it like that, but it keeps me on track (for the most part). I guess I’m just weird. But I like being weird. 🙂

    Cheers!

  36. dividenddad,

    Thanks for stopping by!

    Wow $2/day? That’s awesome. That’s $730/year – which would otherwise require ~$21k in new investments at a 3.5% yield. Dividend growth is incredibly powerful, isn’t it?

    Best wishes.

  37. KeithX,

    Meant to say great job on Apple. I missed out on that one. I wasn’t sure if they could continue to produce, but so far they’ve been surprising. And the recent split and dividend boost surely bodes well for shareholders. Great stuff!

    Best regards.

  38. Dear DM,

    I’m following your blog quite a while. Very nice portfolio of well diversified companies you have! I’ve only one question. I noticed you hold quite a few big oil companies like XOM, RDSB COP, BP, Philips 66, CVX. Why are you so diversified? One has to be your favorite? This list of 6 stocks can you rank number 1 as well as number 6. Do you know number 1 as well as number 6? You only own companies who dig up oil. Perhaps a supplier for the on- and offshore industrie like Schlumberger (SLB) of National Oil Well Varco (NOV) is something for you? NOV has started paying a dividend a few years ago, but the dividend has last year been increased by 100%.

    Disclosure: long RDSA, NOV

  39. April was quite the month. Congratulations! TRV does look pretty cheap, but I don’t know anything about them either.

  40. Question,

    Thanks for stopping by. And I appreciate you following the blog. 🙂

    As far as the oil companies go, they’re not all one and the same. For example, COP is upstream only after spinning off their downstream operations in PSX. So these are two totally different companies, and I didn’t invest in PSX directly. Rather, I received shares as an owner of COP. The other oil majors are fully integrated, but even then there are nuances that make them different. Shell is very heavy in natural gas. Exxon is the largest of its size and is very well diversified, and has the scale to get into projects that many smaller companies don’t have the ability to. It is also fantastic with its ability to manage return. But the yield is the lowest of its peer group. CVX is similar to XOM, but has a higher yield, and was cheaper for quite a while there. BP has huge exposure to Russia that is unique to the company, and in addition is perhaps the best value of all. I don’t see the need to pick just one or rank them necessarily. They’re really all different. If I had to own only one or two my picks would be XOM and CVX only because of their size, exposure, diversification, yield, dividend growth streaks, and ability to easily survive a major incident. However, because spills and other unfortunate incidents are always a risk in Big Oil, I like to hedge my bets.

    As far as providers go, it depends. Many of these companies do not have lengthy dividend growth streaks. If they show the ability and willingness to reward shareholders with consistent dividend increases over the next 5-10 years then I’ll be quite interested. I’d also have to see the value, yield, and quality.

    I hope this helps!

    Cheers.

  41. Trader,

    Nothing like receiving more money simply for waking up and being alive. We’re getting more and more wealthy by the minute here. 🙂

    Best regards.

  42. CI,

    April was a great month, indeed. The rest of the year won’t be so exciting, but I’d rather get the raises nice and early in the year to put the extra compounding to work right away. 🙂

    Yeah, I’ve kicked the tires with TRV, but that’s about it. I should take a good look at it. I’ve done well with insurance companies in the past. I’d have to find out why they only have 10 years of dividend growth. They’ve been around for quite a while, so there must be a reason for that.

    Best wishes!

  43. I think we will be FI peers before you know it! I think we are destined to have a beer together in the not too distant future =).

    Btw, thanks for fixing my post!

  44. It sure is! Your blog has been tremendously helpful in my journey to early retirement. For a few years I tried index investing, and I made progress, but I could never really get excited about it. Then I discovered dividend investing and it really fit like a glove. Now I’m saving 80+% of my income and am on the fast track to freedom! Thanks again!

  45. Have ever felt the temptation to sell of some of your stocks i order to get an even better YOC in next correction?

  46. Hi,

    I own some RDS shares, altough mine are A’s since I’m from Belgium. I aquired them in december and since then the stock price has risen more then 10%. So a rising stock price and rising dividend, it doesn’t get much better.

    Cheers,
    Geblin

  47. Always a pleasure to read about dividend increases. Having JNJ and WFC for many years I can see the growth in those increases first hand. As you said in another article, you have to start with pennies, but with time those cents turn to dividend dollars. Have a great weekend.

    Keith

  48. Viisikymppisenä eläkkeelle,

    Glad to have you on board with many of these companies. It’s wonderful to see you own so many from Finland! 🙂

    And thanks for stopping by. Appreciate the support. Looks like you have a very solid portfolio there.

    Best wishes!

  49. Nils,

    Actually, no. It doesn’t even cross my mind. I would only sell stocks if I had to raise capital all of the sudden. Otherwise, I’m quite happy to remain a business partner with wonderful companies and collect rising income. A pullback would allow me to reinvest at more advantageous prices, but other than that selling would be akin to chopping limbs off my income tree. Income is the lifeblood of my strategy, so reducing it voluntarily would be crazy to me.

    Best regards!

  50. Geblin,

    I agree. Rising income combined with rising net worth sure is nice. While I’d rather have cheap stock prices, it is psychologically nice to see them rise. Of course, this should also make one cautious.

    Thanks for stopping by!

    Best regards.

  51. DivHut,

    First, congrats on the $175 in dividend income for April. Solid stuff!!

    And I’m with you. These raises may not seem like much until they all of the sudden are. And this transition from pennies to dollars happens a lot faster than you might think. One just has to stay the course. 🙂

    Best regards!

  52. I own JNJ, XOM and CVX currently and I may start looking into a new position in WFC later this year – plus my mortgage is with Wells Fargo so it’d be nice for their dividends to help with my monthly payment.

    April is actually the lowest income month for me by far ($18.75), but on the bright side I received only $5.80 in April last year and going forward, the only way is up!

  53. Green Money Stream,

    Wow. Must feel great being a shareholder in MetLife! The power of compounding is definitely supercharged when you’re receiving more money with which to compound. 🙂

    Thanks for stopping by!

    Best regards.

  54. dividendlife,

    Progress is progress, my friend. It starts off slow, but once it starts moving faster you’d be amazed at how things change. Keep it up! 🙂

    And using dividends from companies to pay for their goods and services is how I look at it too. It certainly feels good knowing that when I have to buy some Propel flavored water my Pepsi dividends are mostly paying for the purchase.

    Cheers.

  55. Had a monster April for income, $529! YTD is $1,108. I’m reinvesting through my brokerage in nearly all my holdings, so I suppose I don’t really see the income, but it does pile up a little faster each quarter. On track for $3,300 this year, but will continue to reinvest so I don’t get any funny ideas about spending the cash. 🙂

  56. Ravi,

    Nice job, man. You killed it on dividend income for April. You certainly kicked my ass, that’s for sure. 🙂

    And $3,300 is very solid for the year. That’s right about where I finished last year, so you’re not far behind. At the rate you’re going you’ll be lapping me. Keep it up!

    Best regards.

  57. Thanks for the great update…I own many of the same companies as you. But it seems I missed the BP increase for my own account, will need to update my records. Will be joining you as a FL resident in the near future!

    Take Care!

  58. PJ,

    Florida is stunning most of the year. It gets a bit steamy here in the summer, but not radically more so than what you see up north during the months of July and August. But the fall and winter here is really gorgeous. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to stay because after five years I miss my family a lot. And things have changed over the years as my sisters have gotten married and are now having children. Being a distant family member weighs on me.

    And that BP increase was very early, so it’s easy to miss. I hope they still increase it later this year so we get a 2-for-1. 🙂

    Best wishes.

  59. PSX just had an unexpected dividend increase (since they already raised it six months ago.) Up from .39 to .50, a 28% increase. The pennies keep rolling in!

  60. Justin,

    Yeah, I seen that. PSX has been dynamite since being spun off from COP. Incredible stuff.

    BAX also raised their dividend. It’s wonderful to be a dividend growth investor this year! 🙂

    Best regards.

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