Recent Buy: Omega Healthcare Investors Inc

Apr 22, 2015: Bought 65 shares of OHI at $38.46 per share.

Omega Healthcare Investors Inc (NYSE:OHI) is a self-administered REIT (real estate investment trust) that invests in income-producing healthcare facilities located throughout the United States. The company provides lease or mortgage financing to healthcare operating companies, funding investments through loans under revolving credit facilities, from private or public offerings of debt or equity securities, or through secured indebtedness.

OHI is a Dividend Contender with a 13-year streak of consecutive dividend increases. It pays quarterly dividends of 54¢ per share in the months of February, May, August, and November.

18 Dividend Increases, April 13-24, 2015

Includes: CSX • ENLC • GLP • HEP • HFWA • JNJ • KMI • LAZ • LHO • MWE • NGLS • PFG • PG • SO • SPG • SSW • TRGP • TRV

I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list to identify candidates for further analysis and for possible inclusion in DivGro, my portfolio of dividend growth stocks. Companies that regularly increase their dividends show confidence in future earnings growth potential.

Another reason I monitor dividend increases is that I track the yield on cost (YoC) of stocks in my portfolio. When dividends increase, I make YoC adjustments and update DivGro's projected annual dividend income, a measure of the incom e potential of the portfolio over the next 12 months.

In the past two weeks, 18 of the companies on my watch list announced dividend increases. Increases vary from 20% to as low as 1%.

Recent Buy: Qualcomm Inc

Apr 17, 2015: Bought 37 shares of QCOM at $68.01 per share.

Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM) designs, manufactures and markets digital communication products and services based on the company's CDMA digital technology. The company's products consist of integrated circuits and system software used in voice and data communications, networking, application processing, multimedia, and global positioning system products. QCOM was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

QCOM is the Information Technology sector winner and 2^nd ranked stock in the April 2015 edition of my 10 Dividend Growth Stocks article series. The company has a 13-year streak of consecutive dividend increases and pays quarterly dividends of 48¢ per share in the months of March, June, September and December.

Recent Buy: Cummins Inc

Apr 17, 2015: Bought 19 shares of CMI at $134.62 per share.

Founded in 1919 and headquartered in Columbus, Indiana, CMI (NYSE:CMI) is one of the leading designers and manufacturers of diesel engines. The company also produces natural gas engines and engine components and subsystems. CMI sells its products to original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and other customers worldwide. 

CMI is ranked 4^th in the April 2015 edition of my 10 Dividend Growth Stocks article series. It also is the Industrials sector winner. The company has a 9-year streak of consecutive dividend increases. It pays quarterly dividends of 78¢ per share in the months of March, June, September and December.

10 Dividend Growth Stocks For April 2015

Includes: ADM • CAH • CMI • CMP • CNP • CNQ • GPS • HOG • IBM • LAZ • MGA • MSFT • QCOM • VZ 

Every month, I use David Fish's CCC list and the accompanying spreadsheet to rank a selection of dividend growth stocks with the goal of identifying a small number of stocks for further analysis. The CCC list, which is updated monthly, contains all U.S.-listed stocks that have raised their dividends for at least 5 consecutive years. The latest list (dated 3/31/15) contains 690 stocks.

I apply a series of filters to trim the CCC list to a more manageable number. Because I have an ongoing goal to balance my DivGro portfolio across all 10 GICS (Global Industry Classification Standard) sectors, I'm careful to retain a minimum number of stocks per sector.

After ranking 66 stocks last month, I'm back to ranking 'only' 50 stocks. For each sector, I find 5 stocks with the lowest PEG ratio and 5 stocks with the lowest TTM P/E. To select the final 5 sector candidates, I use another heuristic, such as dividend yield.

Dividend Increases, March 23-April 10, 2015

Includes: ARG • FUL • GEL • HPQ • PAA • PNC • QCOM • SCS • WASH 

I monitor dividend increases for stocks in my watch list to identify candidates for further analysis and for possible inclusion in DivGro, my portfolio of dividend growth stocks. Companies that regularly announce dividend increases show confidence about future earnings growth potential.

As a dividend growth investor, I'm interested in companies that not only pay dividends, but those that pay growing dividends. The dividend growth rate is important. If the annualized dividend growth rate fails to match (or exceed) the rate of inflation, your investment would effectively shrink.

I find it interesting to consider the percentage increase of each dividend increase. In the past 3 weeks, 9 of the companies on my watch list announced dividend increases. Please see this Seeking Alpha article for details.

Quarterly Review, Q1-2015

Given a list of fairly challenging goals for 2015, I started the year at quite a pace! In this post I'll give an overview of activities in Q1-2015, the 9^th quarterly review I've done for DivGro.

Recently, I reported on reaching several milestones, including crossing 200,000 page views on DivGro and 150,000 page views on Seeking Alpha. Since joining Seeking Alpha in September 2014, I've published 11 original articles. And, on April Fools Day, my first article for The DIV-Net was published. (No joke!)

Updated Blogroll Page

Last year, I did an extensive overhaul of my blogroll page. In addition to adding links to many new blogs, I created a section in which I highlighted active blogs that were at least one year old at the time, providing a short description to tell readers what each highlighted blog is about.

The blogs on my blogroll page focus on dividend growth investing (DGI) and other forms of passive income generation, and many are about pursuing financial independence. I find it fascinating to scan the many blogs out there from time-to-time to see what others think about these topics. Sometimes, someone else's unique way of thinking spawns new ideas in my mind...

Because I find blogs with public portfolios particularly useful, I include a separate link to public portfolios on my blogroll page, marked with a ¶.

Monthly Review, March 2015

Every month, I review the past month's activities relating to DivGro, my portfolio of dividend growth stocks. At the same time, I update my blog's Performance page, which provides a central place for reviewing DivGro's status and performance relative to the markets and to prior months.

In March 2015, dividend income totaled $648, which is a new all-time record for monthly dividend income! In comparison, dividend income last March was $359. That represents an 81% year-over-year increase!

At the end of March, DivGro's market value was $144,151 and the portfolio is delivering an average yield on cost (YoC) of 4.35%. Projected monthly dividend income increased to $467 from $447 last month.

Recent Buy: Gap Inc.

This article originally appeared on The DIV-Net on 1 April 2015.

Mar 16, 2015: Bought 60 shares of GPS at $41.42 per share.

Gap Inc. (NYSE:GPS) is a global apparel retail company that offers apparel, accessories, and personal care products under the Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy brands, among others. The company operates in the specialty, outlet, online, and franchise channels. It has 375 franchise stores in 41 countries. GPS was founded in 1969, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

GPS is the Consumer Discretionary sector winner and top ranked stock in the March 2015 edition of my 10 Dividend Growth Stocks article series. The company has an 11-year streak of consecutive dividend increases. It pays quarterly dividends of 23¢ per share in the months of January, April, July and October.