28 Dividend Increases: February 20-24, 2017 (Part 1: Financials, REITs, and Utilities)

Companies that regularly raise their dividend payments show confidence in the potential growth of future earnings.

I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for further analysis.

This week, 28 companies on my watch list declared dividend increases, including one of the stocks I hold in my portfolio.

22 Dividend Increases: February 13-17, 2017

Companies can only increase their dividends regularly if earnings grow sufficiently.

Monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list helps me identify candidates for further analysis.

Recently, 22 companies on my watch list decided to increase their dividends, including 3 of the stocks I hold in my portfolio.

Monthly Review of DivGro: January 2017

In January I celebrated DivGro's fourth anniversary. The journey has been (and still is!) exhilarating and I look forward to seeing where the next four years will take me. Coincidently, in December 2016 DivGro's projected annual dividend income (PADI) crossed the $12,000 mark, which means I can expect dividend income of at least $1,000 per month, on average, in perpetuity.

I've finalized the transfer of our trust account from Scottrade to Interactive Brokers where commission rates are more favorable for options trading. I still need to transfer stocks from one of my FolioInvesting accounts to Interactive Brokers so I can execute options trades on those stocks as well. Speaking of options, in January I secured $727 in options income. Recall that I tally secured options income, which is income received from closed options trades. Please see my latest options update for details.

Recent Sell: PennantPark Investment

I bought 215 shares of PennantPark Investment Corp (PNNT) in September 2013 when I was a rookie dividend growth investor. One can easily argue that I made the classic mistake of chasing yield. The company paid dividends of 28¢ per quarter, so my initial yield on cost (YoC) was a whopping 9.63%. Unfortunately, PNNT froze its dividend right when I bought those shares. Rather than sell the shares, I argued that I could afford to take on more risk for such a high yield.

Not long after buying those shares, PNNT's stock took a nosedive all the way down to $4.65:

10 Dividend Growth Stocks For February 2017

I rank a selection of the CCC dividend growth stocks and present the top 10 ranked stocks as candidates for further research.

For February's selection, I start with the top dividend growth stocks held by DGI bloggers and rank those that also appear on the CCC list.

Only one stock earns a 7-star rating this month, while the other nine are all rated 6-stars. I consider stocks rated 5-stars or better worthy of further analysis.

19 Dividend Increases: February 6-10, 2017

Companies can only raise their dividends regularly if earnings grow sufficiently.

Monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list helps me identify candidates for further analysis.

This past week, 19 companies on my watch list announced dividend increases, including three of the stocks I own.

Options Update: January 2017

Every month, I compile an update of options trading activity shortly after options expiration Friday. Doing so allows me to report any options that expired or got assigned. I also report new options trades and provide a running tally of options income to date.

My foray into options is to boost dividend income with options income. I do so by leveraging the dividend growth stocks I own. While my focus will remain on dividend growth investing, options trading provides an interesting and potentially lucrative sideline activity. In about eight months of trading, I've secured about $2,500 in options income!

19 Dividend Increases: January 30-February 3, 2017

Companies that regularly raise dividends show confidence in the potential growth of future earnings.

I like monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks because I consider such stocks to be candidates for further analysis.

This past week, 19 companies on my watch list announced dividend increases, including one of the stocks I own.

Annual Review, 2016

Welcome to my fourth annual review of DivGro, my portfolio of dividend growth stocks!

Keeping track of DivGro in a public forum helps me to learn and grow as a dividend growth investor. I learn from the research I do while writing articles, but also from interacting with like-minded investors.

In my annual reviews, I look at DivGro's performance as measured by dividend income, dividend increases, annualized returns, and rate of return. I also look at some highlights of the past year and share my outlook for the coming year.

DivGro Pulse: January 2017

With lots of new year hustling related to DivGro, my portfolio of dividend growth stocks, I'm a little late with my monthly pulse article in which I monitor DivGro's health.

Pulse articles are strategy focused and help me to identify undervalued stocks suitable for further investment. Additionally, if stocks in my portfolio perform poorly, they could be candidates for the chopping block. I use various charts to visualize recent performance.

To prepare for pulse articles, I update the fair value estimates for every stock in my portfolio. This is a process that takes several hours to complete, as I perform a multi-stage Dividend Discount Model analysis, a Gordon Growth Model analysis, and an analysis of dividend safety. My final fair value estimate also considers fair value estimates and price targets available elsewhere, such as those from Morningstar, finbox.io, and S&P Capital IQ.