Recent buys: BEP, TXN, AD and MDT

 During the last month I added to three existing holdings and opened one new position.

• On November 4 I purchased another 40 shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners for $29 per share. The current dividend yield is around 4,4%. This purchase adds more than $ 50 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On November 4 I purchased another 10 shares of Texas Instruments (TXN) for $162 per share. The dividend yield at the moment of purchase was around 3,1%. This purchase adds about $ 50 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On November 16 I purchased another 50 shares of Ahold Delhaize (AD) for € 27,60 per share. The current dividend yield is around 3,5%. This purchase adds just under € 50 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On November 29 I opened a new position in Medtronic. I purchased 30 shares for about $77 per share. The dividend yield at the moment of purchase was around 3,4%. This new purchase adds about $ 80 to my annual forward dividend income. 

My current annual dividend income is around € 11.430. Due to the new purchased it increased by roughly € 230, but the weaker USD had a negative impact on my annual dividend income in EUR. 

Monthly report: November 2022

November is over! The second month of the last quarter is already over. Earnings season was more or less done so last month was calm on the company news front. Stock prices have moved higher during this month, on average about 10%. I've got just three companies with a small price decline (XOM, Shell, and OHI), the rest of my stocks are up, in some cases considerably (BHP: +30%, ASML and TROW: +25%, APD and PM: +20%). This is more or less the same result as last month. The rally of the last two months really lifted stock market results for this year. For my whole portfolio I have a rate of return of about +13% when I take everything in consideration (FX-changes, dividends, new deposits, etc.)

Either way I am not too worried about price fluctuations. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

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 about €150 after tax! Eight companies paid me dividends. The dividend income decreased but that is mainly because of two "special" dividends last year. I received shares in spin-offs Kyndryl (from IBM) and Orion Office REIT (from Realty Income). I sold these spin-offs immediately and registered the proceeds as dividend income. Without these special items by dividend income grew by about 35%, even with the dividend cut and subsequent sale of T. Organic dividend growth from BMY and Deere, and my recent addition of 25 shares of Realty Income (O), purchases in APD (here and here) and my purchase in TXN really propelled dividend growth during the last month.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2022. It shows that I already earned more dividends compared to the whole of last year!

Currently my annual dividend income is about € 11.430. This is a slight increase from last month due to a series of purchases, which I actually did not report as of yet.

How was your November? What is your watchlist?

Monthly report: October 2022

October is over! The first month of the last quarter is already over. Earnings season began about twee weeks ago. Stock prices have moved higher since then. I've got just three companies with a small price decline (MPW, BHP and BEP), the rest of my stocks are up, in some cases considerably (XOM: +27%, BLK and CMI: +20%). This is a total conversion of last month where just three stocks were up. Either way I am not too worried about price fluctuations. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

In the treechart most of the red actually means a small increase (instead of a decrease). For instance: UNP is up 2%. I don't know how to change this setting in Google Sheets to use an absolute 0 as reference for either a stock price increase or decrease. 

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 more than €100 after tax! Seven companies paid me dividends, one more than last year. The dividend income increased by about 67% compared to last year. Most of the growth is due to new purchases, but also because of favorable FX-rates. My recent purchase of MPW and my recent addition of 25 shares of Realty Income (O) really propelled dividend growth during the last month. The raises of the rest of my companies are somewhat muted.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2022. It shows that I already earned more dividends compared to the whole of last year!

Currently my annual dividend income is about € 11.370. This is a big jump from last month due to a series of purchases.

How was your October? What is your watchlist?

Recent buys: BIP, BEP, ASML and UNP

Recently I added to four existing holdings.

• On October 11 I purchased another 60 shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners $33,50 per share. The current dividend yield is around 4,3%. This new purchase adds more than $ 85 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On October 11 I purchased another 40 shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners $29 per share. The current dividend yield is around 4,4%. This new purchase adds more than $ 50 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On October 13 I purchased another 3 shares of ASML for about € 405 per share.
  I purchased my first shares in ASML last month for $474 and my 2nd batch a few weeks ago for € 440. This purchase adds almost € 16 to my annual forward dividend income.
• On October 21 I purchased another 10 shares of Union Pacific Corporation for $190 per share. The current dividend yield is around 2,7%. This new purchase adds more than $ 50 to my annual forward dividend income. 

My current annual dividend income is around € 11.400.

Monthly report: September 2022

September is over! Summer has ended and we are entering the last quarter of 2022. September was a blood bath with regards to the stock market. I've got just three companies with a small price increase, the rest of my stocks are down, in some cases (Intel, BEP, BLK among others) 15-20%. Either way I am not too worried about price fluctuations. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

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 more than €500 after tax! Eighteen (!) companies paid me dividends. The dividend income decreased by about 65% compared to last year. Most of the growth is due to new purchases, but also because of favorable FX-rates. BHP slightly decreased its final dividend payment compared to last year. However new purchases in TROW (here), BEP (here), Intel (here), JNJ (here) and some nice dividend raises (UNP, AFL, TROW) really propelled my dividend income.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2022. It shows that I already earned more dividends compared to the whole of last year!

Currently my annual dividend income is about € 11.200. This is a big jump from last month due to a series of purchases.

How was your September? What is your watchlist?

Recent buys: Realty Income (O) & ASML

 Recently I added to two existing holdings.

• On September 27th I purchased another 25 shares of Realty Income (O) for about € 60 per share. The current dividend yield is around 5% which is usually a fair point of entry. I purchased my first shares in O a few years ago for $53. This new purchase adds almost $ 75 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On September 28th I purchased another 3 shares of ASML for about € 440 per share. I purchased my first shares in ASML a few weeks ago for $474. I plan to add another batch of shares at a price of around $ 400-410. This purchase adds almost € 16 to my annual forward dividend income. 

My current annual dividend income is around € 11.200.

Recent buys: ASML, TXN, MPW, AFL & INTC

Recently I opened three new positions and added to two existing holdings. New positions are:

• On August 5 I purchased 3 shares of ASML for about € 474 per share. This purchase adds almost € 16 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On August 6 I purchased 10 shares of TXN for about $ 163 per share. This new purchase adds almost $ 50 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On August 6 I purchased 100 shares of MPW for about $ 14 per share. This new purchase adds almost $ 116 to my annual forward dividend income.

Additions to current holdings are:

• On August 5 I purchased 20 shares of AFL for about $ 60 per share. This new purchase adds almost $ 32 to my annual forward dividend income.
• On August 20 I purchased 60 shares of INTC for about $ 29 per share. This new purchase adds almost $ 88 to my annual forward dividend income.

I used about € 7.400,- in cash for these purchases. My dividend income increased by about € 300,- which equates to a dividend yield of roughly 4,1%.

My current forward annual dividend income is about € 11.000

Monthly report: August 2022

August is over! Summer has ended and we are more than halfway in 2022. August was a positive month with regards to the stock market, at least for the first few weeks. The last week however was full of down days. Either way I am not too worried about price fluctuations. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

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 just over €115 after tax. Five companies paid me dividends. The dividend income decreased by about 11% compared to last year. But this is due to a favorable USD-rate. The dividend cut (and subsequent sale) of T reduced my dividend income. This decrease was mitigated by two dividend raises from Deere in the last twelve months. Other dividend raises from KMI, OHI, O were somewhat muted (or none-existent). BMY delivered a solid dividend raise.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2022 (which obviously is just the first eight months of the year). But it shows that I earned more dividends compared to the whole of last year !

Currently my annual dividend income is almost € 11.000. This is a big jump from last month. That's because of a series of purchases from yesterday and today. I will write a separate post about it soon.

How was your August? What is your watchlist?

Recent purchase: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

Last week I increased my position in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). On August 18th I purchased 12 shares of JNJ for about $ 167 per share. This new purchase adds almost $ 55 to my annual forward dividend income. I now own 20 shares of JNJ.

Recent purchase: Ahold-Delhaize, Blackrock and Air Products

Recently I increased my position in the following companies: Ahold Delhaize (AD), Blackrock (BLK) and Air Products and Chemicals (APD).

• On July 18th I purchased 50 shares of AD for about € 26 per share. This new purchase adds almost € 50 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On July 18th I purchased 3 shares of BLK for about $ 600 per share. This new purchase adds almost $ 60 to my annual forward dividend income.
• On July 19th I purchased 6 shares of APD for about $ 227 per share. This new purchase adds almost $ 40 to my annual forward dividend income.

I used about € 4.400,- in cash for these purchases. My dividend income increased by about € 135,- which equates to a dividend yield of roughly 3,1%.

Dividend report: July 2022

July is over! We are more than halfway in 2022. July was a positive month with regards to the stock market. The markets seems to have calmed a bit, but let's see what happens after the summer. Either way I am not too worried about price fluctuations. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

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 just over €80 after tax. Six companies paid me dividends. The dividend income decreased by about 30% compared to last year. But this is due to the special dividend of TROW last year. Without it I would have booked a 30% increase in dividend income. This (fictional) increase is the result of an additional purchases in Merck and some smaller dividend raises. So all in all a slow but decent month.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2022 (which obviously is just the first seven months of the year). But it shows that I earned about the same dividend as last year in just seven months time!

Currently my annual dividend income is just over € 10.500. This is a big jump from last month. That's because of a purchase I did not record earlier. I will write a separate post about is soon, but the short version is I got promoted to junior partner and had the option to increase my ownership position in my company.

How was your July? What is your watchlist?

Dividend report: June 2022

June is over! We are halfway in 2022.  June was a hectic month (again) with regards to the stock market. There were some serious up- and down days but I am not worried about that. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

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 €885 after tax. 17 companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by over 160% compared to last year! This increase is mainly the result of additional purchases in Brink (here), Unilever (here), TROW (here), Intel (here), BIP (here), BEP (here and here), new positions in Visa (here) and Cummins (here) and a big raise from Shell (here), coupled with some other, smaller raises. 

Finally I received shares of Woodside Energy Group as part of the merger of their oil and gas business with BHP. I decided to sell these shares as soon as I could since I have no interest in having a relatively small stake in Woodside. I recorded this as a special dividend from BHP.

So all in all a rather good month! I've used the dividend from Unilever and Shell to drip additional shares in both companies.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2022 (which obviously is just the first six months of the year). But it shows that I earned about the same dividend as last year in just six months time!

Currently my annual dividend income is just over € 4.000. This is somewhat of a jump from last month, because Brink (my employer) decided to payout €14,50 per share as dividend. This is more than last year, hence the increase in dividend income. However it remains to be seen if we can keep up this level of dividend income next year as a company.

 How was your June? What is your watchlist?

Recent buy: BlackRock (BLK)

Earlier this week I purchased 2 shares of BLK for about $ 630 per share. This new purchase adds almost $40 to my annual forward dividend income. I watched BLK for a long time and decided with the price drop this year from $970 to $600 that it was time!

BLK is a competitor of TROW in the financial asset management segment. TROW already has a big position in my portfolio so I decided to diversify in this sector by starting a position in the biggest player in this segment.

BLK increased its dividend for over 18 years (thus including the 2008-2009 crash). The yield currently is 3,2% and the 5-yr dividend growth rate more than 13%. The pay-out ratio is around 40% which leaves more than enough room for future dividend increases.

I hope I can build out this position in coming weeks/months!

Dividend report: May 2022

May is over! It's the same as the last few months. May was a hectic month as well, with regards to the stock market. There were some serious up- and down days but I am not worried about that. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

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 just €100 after tax. Five companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased slightly from last year, but that is mainly due to a favourable FX-change. I increased my position in BMY (here). I also received some solid raised from Deere (DE) and Realty Income (O). However after a disappointing investment in AT&T I finally sold my share earlier this year. Hopefully next month will show some decent dividend growth again!

In the graph above I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2022 until May. So far so good! I've already received more dividend income than the whole of 2020. I am about 50% ahead compared to last year so that is still some serious dividend growth. Let's keep it up! Currently my annual dividend income is around € 3.250.

As for possible purchases during the next month I might take a look into the consumper staples sector. This sector got hit quite hard during the last weeks. 

How was your May? What is your watchlist?

Recent buy: BEP

On May 16 I purchased 30 shares of BEP for about $ 34 per share. This new purchase adds almost $40 to my annual forward dividend income. My total position is now 120 shares, which makes it an above average position in terms of portfolio weight. I bought shares of BEP earlier back in October 2021 and July 2019.

Recent dividend raises (O, JNJ, KMI, IBM, BAX, Shell, UNP)

In the last weeks I received several raises that boosted my dividend income! So let's see who decided to give me more money and how much!

• On March 15 Realty Income (O) announced its Board of Directors has declared an increase in the company's common stock monthly cash dividend to $0.247 per share from $0.2465 per share. It's a standard quarterly raise which adds a few cents each year.
• On April 19 Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced that its Board of Directors has declared a 6.6% increase in the quarterly dividend, from $1.06 per share to $1.13 per share.
• On April 20 Kinder Morgan (KMI) approved a cash dividend of $0.2775 per share for the first quarter ($1.11 annualized), payable on May 16, 2022. This dividend is a 3% increase over the first quarter of 2021 and marks the fifth consecutive annual increase.
• International Business Machines (IBM) raised its quarterly disbursement to $1.65 cents a share from $1.64. The company is a member of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index, whose constituents have paid out a higher dividend for at least 25 straight years. But the raise itself is quite poor...
• On May 2 Baxter International (BAX) announced an increase in the company's quarterly cash dividend to a rate of $0.29 per share of common stock. This represents an approximately 3.5% increase over the previous quarterly dividend rate of $0.28 per share.
• On May 5 Shell decided to raise its quarterly divend by about 4%. Since Shell is one of my bigger positions this raise adds more than € 13 per year.
• On May 12 Union Pacific Corporation (UNP) announced a 10% hike in its dividend payout. The move underscores the company’s sound financial health as it utilizes free cash flow for enhancing shareholders’ returns. It is the 3rd 10% dividend raise during the last year.

These seven raises combined will deliver an annual income boost of more than € 25 in 2022 (and hopefully more after 2022!). In total I have received raises which will boost my annual dividend income by almost € 135.

Dividend report: April 2022

April is over! It's the same as the last few months. April was a hectic month as well, with regards to the stock market. There were some serious up- and down days but I am not worried about that. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

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 €130 after tax. 8 companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by more than 80% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of (additional) purchases in Ahold Delhaize (here) and Merck (here and here). The rest of the increase is due to dividend raiseds from existing holdings. 

So all in all a rather good month! I expect to use my available cash position to invest later this month.

In the graph above I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2022 (which obviously is just the first four months of the year). But so far so good! I've already received more dividend income than the whole of 2019!

Currently my annual dividend income is around € 3.250.

How was your April? What is your watchlist?

Recent buy (APD) and recent sell (T)

Last week I sold my position in AT&T (ticker: T). I sold my 42 shares for just under $24 per share. I purchased these shares about three years ago for $28.65. I received about $240 in dividends during this period. The total return on my investment is a rather measly 1% per year. THe first year I received the usual dividend raise. One year after my purchase AT&T decided to stop increasing its dividend. To make matters worse, earlier this year they decided to slash its dividend because of the spin-off of WarnerMedia. I decided to offload my shares before the actual spin-off so I wouldn't be stuck with two positions I am not too happy about. This will decrease my annual forward income by about $74.

That said, with my cash position I decided to start a new position in Air Products & Chemicals (APD). APD provides essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications to customers in various industries, including refining, chemical, metals, electronics, manufacturing, and food and beverage. Given the high barriers for entry and long-term contracts with its clients, I expect this company to do well in the future.

The share price of APD is more than 20% lower than the peak in last year. Shares are yielding 2,6%. I believe the company is not THAT cheap, but I guess its fairly valued. I consider this my first purchase. Depending on the share price developemnt I could further increase my position. This purchase will add about $40 to my annual forward income.

All in all my annual forward dividend income decreased because AT&T was a higher yielding company before the dividend cut. However, later this month I might have a big enough cash buffer to make another purchase. Let's see what happens!

Dividend report: March 2022

March is over! Already the 3rd month of a new year.  March was a hectic month with regards to the stock market. There were some serious up- and down days but I am not worried about that. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

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 €335 after tax. 15 companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by over 60% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of additional purchases in TROW (here and here), Unilever (here and here), Intel (here), BIP (here), BEP (here), new positions in Visa (here) and Cummins (here) and big raises from BHP (here), UNP (here and here) and Aflac (here).

So all in all a rather good month! I've used the dividend from Unilever and Shell to drip additional shares in both companies. I expect to use my available cash position to invest later in April.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2022 (which obviously is just the first three months of the year). But the start is great!

Currently my annual dividend income is around € 3.166. I still have to report a dividend cut from AT&T but that should keep my forward dividend income above € 3.000.

How was your March? What is your watchlist?

Dividend report: February 2022

February is over! Already the 2nd month of a new year.  Just like January, February was also a hectic month with regards to the stock market. There were some serious up- and down days but I am not worried about that. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices. The recent war situation in Ukrain obviously scares the hell out of me. Let's hope Putin will be stopped as soon as possible, so the people in Ukrain can live peacefully.

In my portfolio I had a few big losers, like CMI (-9%) and Deere (-8%) but I also had some winners, like BMY and BEP (both +8%). All things considered my portfolio hardly moved.

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 more than €110 after tax. It's the first time I crossed the threshold of €100 in the month of february, so that's a nice little milestone. Six companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by almost 20% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of an additional purchase in BMY and two big raises from Deere (here and here). Dividend growth for my other holdings is rather muted, although the last from Realty Income (O) was bigger than in last years..

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2022 (which obviously is just the first two months of the year). But the start is great!

Currently my annual dividend income is around € 3.095. I still have to report a dividend cut from AT&T but that should keep my forward dividend income above € 3.000.

How was your February? What is your watchlist?

Recent buy: Ahold Delhaize

Last week I added to my existing position in Ahold Delhaize (ticker: AD). I purchased an additional 40 shares in the company for € 26,70 per share.  I purchased my first 60 shares back in March 2021 for a price af around € 23.

Ahold Delhaize was priced at €30 back in early January. This is a price drop of more than 10%. This has to due with market fluctuations but it was also a reaction on Ahold's latest earnings release with a somewhat muted outlook. However I don't care too much. I find it still remains a stable business model with room to grow with its online business like Bol.com. Management indicated that this could be a future spin-off. We'll see what happens!

My forward dividend annual income increases with about € 33 with this purchase.

Recent dividend raises (TROW, BHP, AD, CSCO, WMT, KO)

In the last week I received several raises that boosted my dividend income! So let's see who decided to give me more money and how much!

• T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) has announced that it will be increasing its dividend by 11% on the 30th of March to $1.20. Given my recent additions to TROW this raise adds more than €16 to my annual dividend income.
• BHP announced a raise in its semi-annual dividend to $ 3 per share (from $2,02 last year). This gigantic raise adds more than €24 to my annual dividend income with just this payment.
• Ahold Delhaize announced a raise in its semi-annual dividend to €0,52 per share (from €0,40 last year). This is a nice raise, which adds € 6 to my annual dividend income.
• Cisco (CSCO) raised its quarterly dividend by a rather small amount, just like Walmart (WMT).
• Finally Coca-Cola raised its dividend by almost 5%. This is a solid raise, given the raises in the last years.

All of these raises combined will deliver an annual income boost of more than € 50 in 2022 (and hopefully more after 2022!). In total I have received raises which will boost my annual dividend income by over € 100. That's a solid start of the year!

Recent buy (Unilever) and recent sell (Accell)

Earlier this week I had two transactions in my portfolio. I sold one stock in my portfolio, and with the proceeds I purchased additional shares in a company I already own. I still have some cash laying around, so I guess you can expect another 'Recent buy' article in two weeks or so.

Let's begin with my recent sell: Accell Group. This is actually the first company in my dividend portfolio. I purchased these shares back in 2011. Due to dividend reinvestments in the first years I accumulated 29 shares for an average price of just over € 16. A few weeks ago the news came that a consortium led by buyout firm KKR had agreed a takeover of Accell Group. Their cash-offer of € 58 per share represented a premium of 26% over Accell's closing price on January 21st. The offer is due to launch in the second quarter after approvals, and to close in the third quarter. Since the share price immediately increased to the take over price of €58 I decided to not wait around and sell my shares. With this investment I earned a rate of return of about 15% per year. Too bad my original investment was just over € 400, else I would have earned some serious money! Accell decided to postpone the dividend during the COVID-19 crisis, so this sell does not affect my annual dividend income going forward.

With the proceeds I decided to add to my existing position in Unilever (ticker: UNA). I purchased an additional 24 shares in the company.  I purchased my first 37 shares back in 2013 when the dividend yield was around 3,6%. In the last few years I added shares four more times with dividend yields between 3,0% and 3,6%. Currently the forward dividend is 3,7% so in terms of valuation this is a good time to add to my position. Unilever is working through some problems but I believe in the future prosperity of this company. With this addition I am almost able to take advantage of the automatic dividend reinvestment option through my broker. 

This purchase adds € 40 to my annual dividend income, which stands at € 3.050! That's another milestone right there. Let's see how fast we can reach a new milestone, let's say € 3.600 (€ 300,- per month).

Recent buy: TROW

Last week I added to my existing position in T. Rowe Price (ticker: TROW). I purchased an additional 8 shares in the company.  I purchased my first 20 shares back in 2016 when the dividend yield was around 2,9%. Last year I added to my position with an extra 10 shares.

TROW was priced at $220 back in November last year. Currently the price has declined to just under $150. This is a price drop of more than 30%. The P/E-ratio is around 12x. Last year I noted that the company is firing on all cylinders, has improved its net income margin, decreased the number of oustanding shares by almost 10% and still has no debt whatsoever. The latest dividend increases were 18% in 2020 and 20% in 2021. I have nothing to complain with these kind of annual raises. The payout ratio is 34% and is still really solid.

My forward dividend annual income increases with about € 30 with this purchase.

Dividend raises in the last weeks (INTC, BIP, BEP)

In the last few weeks I received several raises that boost my dividend income! So let's see who decided to give me more money and how much!

• On January 26th Intel (INTC) declared a $0.365/share quarterly dividend. This was a 5% increase from its prior dividend. This raise will add just over € 5 to my dividend income.
• On February 2nd Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP) declared a $0.54/share quarterly dividend, which is a 5.9% increase from its prior dividend of $0.51. This raise will add just over € 6 to my dividend income.
• On February 4th Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP) declared a $0.32/share quarterly dividend, which is a 5.3% increase from its prior dividend of $0.3038.This raise will add just over € 5 to my dividend income.

All of these raises combined will deliver an annual income boost of almost € 17 in 2022 (and hopefully more after 2022!). In total I have received raises which will boost my annual dividend income by over € 50. That's a solid start of the year,

 

Dividend report: January 2022

January is over! Already the first month of a new year. The last weeks were quite hectic in our household. COVID finally reached our family. That required some serious flexibility on our part but I guess we managed it for the most part. Let's hope February is quiet on that front.

January was also a hectic month with regards to the stock market. There were some serious up- and down days but I am not worried about that. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

In my portfolio I had a few big losers, like TROW (-20%), OHI (-10%), INTC (-10%) but I also had some big winners, mainly in the energy sector: Shell (+17%), XOM (+22%) but also Accell (+21%) which was boosted by a planned take-over. All things considered my portfolio hardly moved.

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 € 900 after tax. Six companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by almost 60% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of additional purchases in Brink (my employer) and MRK (here and here). Dividend growth for my other holdings are rather muted.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2022 (which obviously is just the first month of the year). But the start is great! What is awesome to see is that the income from last month is higher than my annual income till 2017. I've take some serious steps.

Currently my annual dividend income is around € 2.970. I still have to report some recent dividend raises and an addition to my portfolio. A hint: it is one of my losers from last month.

How was your January? What is your watchlist?

15 Dutch Dividend Stocks to consider

I was reading another blog a few days ago about 15 dividend stocks from The Netherlands. I really liked this list and might add to or open positions in any of these companies in the future. I thought I'd share this article with you.

 The best Dutch dividend stocks to buy in 2022 | 15 stocks to consider! (europeandgi.com)

Thank to EuropeanDGI for compiling this list.

Dividend report: December 2021

December is over! Heck, even 2021 is over. It was a year in which I seriously boosted my dividend portfolio. Hopefully I can continue this in 2022. We'll have to wait and see.

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?!

December dividend income: 2021 vs. 2020

A total of almost € 230. Fourteen companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by almost 50% compared to last year. The bigger increases are the result of additional purchases in Unilever, TROW, BEP, BIP and CMI. Aflac and Union Pacific increased their dividend by a substantial amount last year. 

In the graph below I showed my cumulative dividend income for 2021.

I am about 65% ahead compared to the dividend I received last year. In absolute numbers this is an increase of € 900. Currently my annual dividend income is around € 2.945.

How was your December? What is your watchlist?