Monthly Review: March 2016

March was a busy month for DivGro. Following the market's downturn in January and February, I doubled down on no fewer than 6 of my existing holdings, equating to about $15,000 of fresh capital deployed.

I'm busy consolidating several portfolios so I can manage my dividend paying stocks using the investment strategies developed for DivGro. I'm not actually moving stocks between accounts. Rather, I'm recording transaction history and updating dividend income and projected dividend income totals.

As always, I'm updating my Performance page with the most recent month's statistics.

March Highlights

As an end-of-quarter month, March was another record-setting month. I recorded dividend income totaling $2,633. Of this amount, $1,150 is from dividends received in March and $1,483 is from past dividends recorded. No fewer than 33 of my stocks had dividend payments this month!

Projected monthly income increased to $847. Assuming no changes in dividend payments, this means DivGro will produce $847 per month in perpetuity! Of course, the idea with dividend growth investing is that dividends will grow over time and (at least) keep pace with inflation. DivGro's average yield on cost (YoC) if 4.47%, significantly above the current U.S. inflation rate of 1.02%.

Here is DivGro's projected monthly dividend income (red line) plotted against monthly dividends:


Comparing dividend income by month is another way to see progress:

Dividend income of March 2016 is 77% higher than the amount I received in March 2015.

Transactions:

• Purchases
• 2016-03-09: Buy 44 shares of ABBV @ $56.16
• 2016-03-16: Buy 35 shares of TROW @ $71.39
• 2016-03-16: Buy 40 shares of MIC @ $65.15
• 2016-03-17: Buy 140 shares of STWD @ $18.73
• 2016-03-18: Buy 30 shares of UNP @ $85.09
• 2016-03-18: Buy 28 shares of GILD @ $90.47
• Transfers
• 2016-03-02: Transfer 237 shares of NIE @ $17.77
• 2016-03-08: Transfer 500 shares of EXG @ $9.93
• 2016-03-11: Transfer 16 shares of MMM @ $159.60
• Sales
• None
• Dividends
• 2016-03-01: Cash Dividend Received AFL: $20.50
• 2016-03-01: Cash Dividend Received HP: $48.13
• 2016-03-01: Cash Dividend Received INTC: $31.20
• 2016-03-01: Cash Dividend Received CMI: $18.53
• 2016-03-01: Cash Dividend Received F: $67.50
• 2016-03-01: Special Dividend Received F: $112.50
• 2016-03-01: Cash Dividend Received NPM: $25.20
• 2016-03-02: Cash Dividend Received PFE: $30.00
• 2016-03-08: Cash Dividend Received JNJ: $22.50
• 2016-03-08: Cash Dividend Received MIC: $34.50
• 2016-03-10: Cash Dividend Received TGT: $22.40
• 2016-03-10: Cash Dividend Received MSFT: $28.80
• 2016-03-10: Cash Dividend Received IBM: $39.00
• 2016-03-10: Cash Dividend Received XOM: $47.45
• 2016-03-10: Cash Dividend Received CVX: $53.50
• 2016-03-11: Cash Dividend Received WBA: $15.84
• 2016-03-15: Cash Dividend Received MAIN: $41.40
• 2016-03-15: Cash Dividend Received STAG: $25.20
• 2016-03-15: Cash Dividend Received O: $19.85
• 2016-03-15: Cash Dividend Received MCD: $24.03
• 2016-03-15: Cash Dividend Received AVA: $25.69
• 2016-03-15: Cash Dividend Received MDP: $147.00
• 2016-03-21: Cash Dividend Received D: $25.20
• 2016-03-23: Cash Dividend Received QCOM: $11.59
• 2016-03-24: Cash Dividend Received NIE: $7.11
• 2016-03-30: Cash Dividend Received GILD: $9.46
• 2016-03-30: Cash Dividend Received TROW: $16.20
• 2016-03-31: Cash Dividend Received UNP: $14.30
• 2016-03-31: Cash Dividend Received EXG: $40.65
• 2016-03-31: Cash Dividend Received TRV: $95.67
• 2016-03-31: Cash Dividend Received ES: $26.70
• 2016-03-31: Cash Dividend Received RS: $16.00
• 2016-03-31: Cash Dividend Received BBL: $32.00
• 2016-03-31: Cash Dividend Received DLR: $42.24
• Past Dividends
• 2016-03-02: Transfer Past Dividends NIE: $531.18
• 2016-03-08: Transfer Past Dividends EXG: $951.54
• Deposits
• 2016-03-29: April Cash Deposit: $2,000.00
• Past Deposits
• 2016-03-02: Transfer Past Cash Deposit: $4,212.19
• 2016-03-08: Transfer Past Cash Deposit: $4,962.85
• 2016-03-09: Consolidation Cash Deposit: $19,712.55
• 2016-03-11: Transfer Past Cash Deposit: $2,553.61

Changes in Projected Annual Dividend Income (PADI):

• From Purchases
• The purchase of 44 ABBV shares added $100.32.
• The purchase of 35 TROW shares added $5.25.
• The purchase of 40 MIC shares added $4.40.
• The purchase of 140 STWD shares added $7.00.
• The purchase of 28 GILD shares added $6.72.
• The purchase of 30 UNP shares added $6.00.
• From Transfers
• The transfer of 237 NIE shares added $360.24.
• The transfer of 500 EXG shares added $487.80.
• The transfer of 16 MMM shares added $71.04.
• From Increases
• GD's dividend increase added $9.80.
• QCOM's dividend increase added $20.00.
• O's dividend increase added $0.60.
• WPC's dividend increase added $1.54.
• From Decreases
• BBL's dividend decrease subtracted $184.00.
• PADI increased by $1,511.89 to $10,163.06.

Notice that I've decreased PADI by $184 this month after BHP Billiton (NYSE:BBL) slashed its dividend by 75%. Usually, I sell my shares of a company following a dividend cut, such as when ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) cut its dividend by 66%. However, BBL still yields nearly 7% 3% following its dividend cut, so I'm going to hang onto my shares for a while longer. 

Dividend Summary:

• Dividend income last month: $2,241.51
• Dividend income this month: $2,633.17
• Total dividend income year-to-date: $5,969.95
• Total dividend income all-time: $19,074.00

Markets:

Feb 29, 2016	DOW: 16,516.50 S&P 500: 1,932.23 10-YR BOND: 1.74%
Mar 31, 2016	DOW: 17,685.09 S&P 500: 2,059.74 10-YR BOND: 1.79%

In March, the Dow gained 7.08% and the S&P 500 gained 6.60%.

Portfolio: Here is a snapshot of DivGro's state on 31 March 2016:

Goals Report

I've set some challenging goals for 2016:

1. PADI: Increase projected annual dividend income to $12,000.
2. Dividends: Earn $10,800 in dividend income.
3. Posts: Post 120 articles on my DivGro blog.
4. Seeking: Write 52 premium articles for Seeking Alpha.
5. DivNet: Write 8 articles for The DivNet.

The last gauge is a reference – it indicates where the other gauges should be after 91 out of 366 days. I'm a little ahead of schedule with PADI an on track with Dividends. After a productive month, I'm doing great on Posts and Seeking. This month, I'll find some time to write for DivNet. 

March Posts

I wrote a total of 16 articles in March. In case you missed any of them, here they are:

•   1 Mar: Recent Buy: STAG Industrial Inc – Dividend Challenger STAG is a REIT that yields 7.85%
•   2 Mar: Recent Transfer: AllianzGI Equity & Convertible Income Fund – CEF yielding 8.70%!
•   3 Mar: Monthly Review, February 2016 – another challenging month for the markets, but some great dividends for DivGro!
•   8 Mar: Recent Transfer: Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Global Diversified Equity Income Fund – CEF yielding 11.57%!
•   9 Mar: Further Consolidation – consolidating my IRA accounts adds 5 new stocks and lots of cash!
• 12 Mar: 8 Dividend Increases: February 29-March 11, 2016 – 2 double digit increases, including DivGro holding GD
• 14 Mar: Recent Transfer: 3M Company – Dividend Champion MMM has a streak of 58 years of dividend increases
• 17 Mar: Recent Buy: Macquarie Infrastructure Company – MIC yields 4.98% and trades at a discount of about 33%
• 18 Mar: Recent Buy: T. Rowe Price Group Inc – Dividend Champion TROW yields 2.49% has is debt-free!
• 19 Mar: Recent Buy: Starwood Property Trust, Inc. – A mortgage REIT that yields 10.25%!
• 20 Mar: Recent Buy: Gilead Sciences, Inc. – I'm buying GILD for its growth prospects
• 21 Mar: Recent Buy: Union Pacific Corporation – Dividend Challenger UNP yields 2.59% and has a great credit rating!
• 22 Mar: 8 Dividend Increases: March 14-March 18, 2016 – 2 double digit increases, including DivGro holding QCOM
• 25 Mar: 10 Dividend Growth Stocks for March 2016 – 6 newcomers and TROW tops this month's list
• 28 Mar: 6 Dividend Increases: March 21-March 25, 2016 – DivGro holdings WPC and O announce increases
• 31 Mar: Doubling Down in March – doubling down on several holdings means averaging down my cost basis

Looking Ahead: I'm continuing the process of consolidating dividend paying stocks I hold in a couple of IRA accounts with those in DivGro. I still have a good portion of cash on hand, so I'll be looking for good opportunities to add to my holdings. 

Thanks for reading and take care, everybody!