Monthly Review of DivGro: March 2017

I'm a little late with my monthly review for March. Work continues to occupy most of my time, so I'm finding it quite challenging to update DivGro. I'm certainly not complaining about work... it is better to have too much work than not to have enough work. But it would be great to have just enough once in a while!

In March I finished the consolidation of my wife's traditional IRA's into a single account at FolioInvesting, where I'll be managing it using DivGro's strategy of dividend growth investing. I retained one of her stocks, UnitedHealth Group (UNH), which happens to be DivGro's 8^th home run!

March was a record-breaking month for dividend income! I just love quarter-ending months, as most of my dividend growth stocks happen to pay dividends in those months. In March, I received dividend income of $1,754, an increase of 53% over the amount received in March 2016. Additionally, I recognized past dividend income of $111 from UNH. Projected annual dividend income (PADI) is now at $12,607, a year over year increase of 24%.

Only four of the stocks I own announced dividend increases in March. The top increases are from General Dynamics Corporation (GD) with an increase of 10.53% and Raytheon Company (RTN), with an increase of 8.87%.

I closed two of my closed-end funds, the Nuveen AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund (NEA) and the Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Global Diversified Equity Income Fund (EXG). This action wiped out a substantial amount of DivGro's PADI, so I redeployed some of the cash to add to my Main Street Capital (MAIN) and AllianzGI Equity & Convertible Income Fund (NIE) positions.

Additionally, I opened a new position in General Electric Company (GE) and I closed my Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KMB) position.

March Highlights

Generating a growing dividend income stream is the main goal of DivGro. I review my dividend income regularly and consider factors that could affect future dividend payments.

In the month of March, I recorded dividend income totaling $1,865. Thirty-one different DivGro stocks paid dividends. The year over year decrease for March is 53%. Including this month's total, I've collected dividend income totaling $4,830 this year.

Projected annual dividend income is the total dividend income I expect to receive in the next 12 months. I recorded 4 buys and 3 sells. Furthermore, 4 stocks announced dividend increases. These activities removed $122 from DivGro's PADI, which now stands at $12,607.

Following is a chart showing DivGro's projected monthly dividend income (red line) against monthly dividends received:


Another way to see progress is to compare dividend income by month:


I'm very happy with March's record-breaking dividend income!

Transactions

In March, I added shares to 2 existing positions:

• AGIC Equity&Convertible Income Fund (NIE)
• Main Street Capital Corp. (MAIN)

Also, I opened the following positions in DivGro:

• General Electric Corporation (GE)
• Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM)

As mentioned earlier, I retained one of my wife's stocks, which is a new position for DivGro:

• UnitedHealth Group (UNH)

Lastly, I closed the following positions:

• Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Global Diversified Equity Income Fund (EXG)
• Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KMB)
• Nuveen Amt-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund (NEA)

As a result of these transactions, DivGro's PADI decreased by $199.

Dividend Changes

The following stocks announced dividend increases:

• Raytheon Company (RTN) – increase 8.87%
• General Dynamics (GD) – increase of 10.53%
• Realty Income Corp. (O) – increase of 0.25%
• Intel Corporation (INTC) – increase of 4.81%

DivGro's PADI increased by $29 due to these dividend changes.

Dividends Received

I received dividends from 30 different stocks this month, for a total of $1,754 in dividend income:

• AFLAC Inc. (AFL) – income of $21.50
• Cummins Inc (CMI) – income of $45.10
• Dominion Resources, Inc (D) – income of $75.50
• Eversource Energy (ES) – income of $28.50
• Ford Motor Company (F) – income of $150.00
• Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD) – income of $52.00
• International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) – income of $42.00
• Intel Corporation (INTC) – income of $57.20
• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) – income of $43.20
• Lockheed Martin (LMT) – income of $25.48
• Main Street Capital Corp. (MAIN) – income of $61.05
• McDonald's Corp. (MCD) – income of $25.38
• 3M Company (MMM) – income of $18.80
• Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) – income of $54.60
• Nuveen Amt-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund (NEA) – income of $22.26
• AGIC Equity&Convertible Income Fund (NIE) – income of $140.98
• Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC) – income of $14.40
• Realty Income Corp. (O) – income of $10.53
• Pfizer Inc. (PFE) – income of $96.00
• Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) – income of $212.00
• STAG Industrial Inc (STAG) – income of $28.00
• Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) – income of $29.00
• Target Corporation (TGT) – income of $84.00
• T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) – income of $57.00
• Travelers Companies (TRV) – income of $19.43
• United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) – income of $20.75
• Valero Energy Corporation (VLO) – $120.40
• Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM) – income of $84.00
• Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc (WBA) – income of $16.50
• ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM) – income of $48.75

Additionally, I recognized past dividend income for the following stock, now part of DivGro:

• UnitedHealth Group (UNH) – income of $110.93

Markets

It is worth looking at the markets to understand the environment we're investing in, even though I no longer compare DivGro's performance to those of the markets:

Feb 28, 2017	DOW: 20,812.24 S&P 500: 2,363.64 NASDAQ: 5,825.44 10-YR BOND: 2.36%
Mar 31, 2017	DOW: 20,663.22 S&P 500: 2,363.72 NASDAQ: 5,911.74 10-YR BOND: 2.40%

In March, the DOW dropped 0.72%, the S&P 500 was essentially flat, and the NASDAQ gained 1.48%. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.40%.

Market Value

This month, DivGro's market value increased by 5.77% to $414,850. Compared with March 2016's market value of $276,681, the year over year increase is 50%.

	Market Value Cash Deposits Simple Return
Mar 31, 2016	$276,681.00 $248,830.00 11.19%
Feb 28, 2017	$392,219.59 $309,446.05 26.75%
Mar 31, 2017	$414,849.52 $312,589.84 32.71%

Here's a chart showing DivGro's market value breakdown. Dividends are plotted at the base of the chart so we can see them grow over time.


Given the current market value of $414,850, my portfolio has delivered a simple return of 32.71% since inception. In comparison, DivGro's IRR (internal rate of return) is 15.16%. (IRR takes into account the timing and size of deposits since inception, so it is a better measure of portfolio performance).

Portfolio

Here is a snapshot of DivGro's state on the last day of March 2017:

I track the yield on cost (YoC) for individual stocks, as well as an average YoC for my portfolio. DivGro's average YoC decreased from 4.11% last month to 3.98% this month.

Another interesting statistic is percentage payback, which relates dividend income to the amount of capital invested. DivGro's average percentage payback is 10.55%, up from last month's 10.18%.

Finally, DivGro's projected annual yield is at 4.03%, down from last month's value of 4.11%. I calculate projected annual yield by dividing PADI ($12,607) by the total amount invested ($312,590).

Goals Review

I've set some challenging goals for 2017:

1. PADI: Increase projected annual dividend income to $14,400
2. Dividends: Earn $12,960 in dividend income
3. Dividends: Earn $8,400 in options income
4. Seeking: Write 64 premium articles for Seeking Alpha
5. DivNet: Write 6 articles for The DIVNet

Here is a set of gauges representing the progress I've made towards achieving these goals. The last gauge is a reference – it indicates where the other gauges should be after 90 out of 365 days:


I'm ahead of schedule on my Options and Dividends goals, but I'm behind on my PADI goal and my DivNet goals.

Looking Ahead

In April I'd like to finish consolidating our IRA accounts. My goal is to manage all our IRAs using DivGro's strategy of dividend growth investing. I'm looking forward to having all this consolidation business behind me so I can focus on analyses rather than admin!

Please see my Performance page for various visuals summarizing DivGro's performance.

Thanks for reading! How did your portfolio perform last month? Please comment below.