First dividend raises for 2022 (AFL, MRK, BMY, O)

In the last few weeks I received several raises that boost my dividend income! I did not report these in my last "Dividend raises" article because these raises will start having an impact in 2022. So let's see who decided to give me more money and how much!

• On November 15th Aflac (AFL) announced the first quarter dividend of $0,40 per share, payable on March 1, 2022. This represents a monstrous 21,2% increase over the previously declared fourth quarter dividend. This raise will add € 20 to my dividend income!
• On December 4th Merck (MRK) has announced that it will be increasing its dividend to $0,69. This raise is about 6% compared to the previous dividend. Given its current yield of 3,6% this is a decent raise.
• On December 10th Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) announced a dividend raise of 10%. Its new quarterly dividend will be $0,54 per share.
• On December15th Realty Income announced an increase in the company's common stock monthly cash dividend to $0.2465 per share from $0.246 per share.

All the raises combined will deliver an annual income boost of almost € 35 in 2022 (and hopefully more after 2022!). That's a solid start of the year, even though the year technically didn't start yet...

 

Dividend raise: Union Pacific (UNP)

I am a bit behind with my updates on dividend raises I received in the last few weeks. I received my last raise in 2021 (and in a next post I will show my first raises of 2022).

On December 10th Union Pacific Corporation (UNP) announced that it will increase its quarterly dividend by 10% to $1.18 per share. The dividend is payable December 30, 2021, to shareholders of record December. This raise adds almost €6 per year. With this raise my original dividend is doubled compared to my first dividend back in 2015 when I bought this stock. During my holding period of 6,5 years the dividend has grown with 12% per year. That's compounding right there!

All the raises in 2021 combined delivered an annual income boost of just over € 200. The biggest contributors are BBL (with a double raise) and RDS. DUring the last half of the year I've added some decent dividend companies to my roster (V, CMI, BMY, MRK) so I expect this list to be bigger next year! 

Recent buy: Visa (V)

Two weeks ago I opened a new position in Visa (ticker: V). I comtemplated buying Visa back in 2014 but decided to purchase Aflac instead. The times I reviewed Visa thereafter I found the stick to be too expensive. In hindsight I should have just pulled the trigger, but I guess hindsight is always 20-20.

For now I purchased 10 shares for $195 per share. This purchase will add $15 to my annual dividend income. Not too much current income but hopefully this position will continue to grow its dividend at a high pace.

Dividend report: November 2021

November is over! Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of almost € 170. Seven companies paid me dividends. The dividend income almost doubled compared to last year. Deere's dividend grew nicely at the back of two monster increases this year. Also It was also my first November payment for me relatively new position of BMY. However, most of the growth in income is attributed to two spin-offs I recevved last month. The first is Kyndryl which is a spin-off from IBM. I received 1 share of the new company and some cash. The second was Orion Office REIT. The move comes as part of Realty Income's merger with VEREIT, Inc. and its plan of the subsequent spin-off of all the office assets from Realty Income and VEREIT into a new independent publicly traded REIT. I received two shares and some cash. 

In the graph below I showed my cumulative dividend income till the end of November. Only 1 month to go in this year!

So far I am about 65% ahead compared to the dividend I received last year at this time in the year. Currently my annual dividend income is around € 2.910.

How was your November? What is your watchlist?