13 Dividend Increases: May 21-25, 2018

Companies that regularly raise their dividend payments show confidence in future earnings growth potential. One way to identify dividend growth stocks for further analysis is to monitor dividend increases.

I look for dividend increase announcements from stocks in the CCC list, but I use several screens to limit the number of stocks to monitor. For example, I look for stocks with market caps exceeding $500m. In the past week, thirteen companies on my watch list decided to increase their dividends.

DivGro Pulse: May 2018

DivGro Pulse is a series of articles that focuses on the strategy of dividend growth (DG) investing. My objectives are to reduce the risk, increase the diversification, and improve the balance of my portfolio holdings.

In my monthly pulse articles, I monitor the health of my portfolio of dividend growth stocks. These articles are strategy-focused and my goals are to reduce the risk, increase the diversification, and improve the balance of my portfolio holdings.

I update the fair value estimates for every stock in my portfolio and use the information to identify undervalued stocks suitable for further investment. As for overvalued stocks and depending on circumstances, I may choose between holding or selling them.

7 Dividend Increases: May 14-18, 2018

Companies that regularly increase their dividends show confidence in future earnings growth potential. Monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list helps me to identify candidates for further analysis.

I look for announcements from stocks in the CCC list, but I use several screens to limit the number of stocks to monitor. Last week, seven companies on my watch list declared dividend increases, and the list includes one of the stocks I own.

10 Dividend Growth Stocks For May 2018

The CCC list is a wonderful source for dividend growth investors. Compiled and updated every month by David Fish, the CCC list contains U.S. companies with at least 5 consecutive years of higher dividend payments. The accompanying spreadsheet provides key statistics of the CCC stocks.

In my monthly 10 Dividend Growth Stocks series, I identify 10 CCC stocks for further research. To create the list, I rank a selection of the CCC stocks and assign a 7-star rating to each stock. Stocks rated 5 stars or better are worthy of further analysis.

This month, I used a new screener to select candidate stocks from the CCC list. This article introduces the new screener as well as the top 10 ranked stocks for May.

Home Run Number 16

About a month ago, I revealed DivGro's fifteenth home run stock, Intel (INTC). A home run stock is any position in DivGro that crosses the 100% mark in total returns.

In that article, I mentioned that Aflac (AFL) was closest to earning home run status, as it was the only stock with total returns above 90%.

Well, another stock beat AFL to the punch! The stock soared 20% in the past month, and today it recorded an all-time high of $121.04 before closing at $120.56. Read on to learn about DivGro's 16^th home run!

21 Dividend Increases: May 7-11, 2018 (Part 2: Remaining Sectors)

Companies that regularly increase dividends show confidence in future earnings growth potential. Monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list helps me identify candidates for further analysis. I look for announcements from stocks in the CCC list, but I use several screens to limit the number of stocks to monitor.

Last week, 21 companies on my watch list declared dividend increases.

Part 1 presented dividend increases for stocks in the Energy, Financials, and Industrials sectors. This is Part 2, which presents dividend increases for stocks in the remaining sectors.

21 Dividend Increases: May 7-11, 2018 (Part 1: Energy, Financials, and Industrials)

Companies can only raise their dividends regularly if earnings grow sufficiently. I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for further analysis.

This past week, 21 companies on my watch list announced dividend increases. Part 1 presents dividend increases from the Energy, Financials, and Industrials sectors. Part 2 will cover the remaining sectors.

18 Dividend Increases: April 30-May 4, 2018

I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for further analysis. Companies can only increase their dividends regularly if earnings grow sufficiently.

Last week, 18 companies on my watch list declared dividend increases, including one of the stocks I own. Of the 18 stocks, five announced double-digit percentage increases, which I consider to be significant!

Monthly Review of DivGro: April 2018

Every month, I write a review of my portfolio of dividend growth (DG) stocks, DivGro. My goal with these reviews is to share updates to my portfolio and to detail the dividends I received during the month. Additionally, I look at how the month's activities have impacted DivGro's projected annual dividend income (PADI).

In April, I opened one new position and added shares to one existing position. Seven DivGro stocks announced dividend increases in April. The net result of these changes is that PADI increased by about 2.6% in April. Year over year, PADI increased by 37.9%.

As for dividend income, in April I received dividends totaling $879 from 16 stocks in my portfolio, a year over year increase of 112%. So far in 2018, I've collected $5,457 in dividends or about 30% of my 2018 goal of $18,000.

Options Update: April 2018

DivGro's focus is dividend growth investing. Most articles I post here relate to the strategy of dividend growth investing and how I manage my portfolio.

In June 2016, I added options trading to leverage the equity in my portfolio and to generate more income. My monthly options update articles report on these trades and I keep track of the options income so generated.

Options trading gives my trader's mind something to work on. For the most part, I sell puts on stocks I would like to own and covered calls on stocks I already own. Sometimes, I execute more speculative options trades, too, such as bull put spreads and other combo trades.

Options trading generates extra income, which allows me to buy more dividend growth stocks than otherwise would have been possible.

36 Dividend Increases: April 23-27, 2018 (Part 3: Remaining Sectors)

Monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch is one way to identify candidates for further analysis. Companies that regularly increase dividends show confidence in future earnings growth potential.

Last week, 36 companies on my watch list announced dividend increases. I own five of these stocks in my DivGro portfolio.

Part 1 and Part 2 presented dividend increases for stocks in the Energy, Utilities, and Financials sectors. This is Part 3, which presents dividend increases for stocks in the remaining sectors.

36 Dividend Increases: April 23-27, 2018 (Part 2: Financials Sector Stocks)

Companies that regularly increase dividends show confidence in future earnings growth potential. Monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list helps me identify candidates for further analysis. I look for announcements from stocks in the CCC list, but I use several screens to limit the number of stocks to monitor.

This week, 36 companies on my watch list declared dividend increases, including four of the stocks I own. Part 1 presented dividend increases for stocks in the Energy and Utilities Sectors. This is Part 2, which presents dividend increases for Financials Sector stocks. Please see the upcoming Part 3 for dividend increases from the remaining sectors.

Ten out of eighteen increases from stocks in the Financials sector are double-digit increases! In fact, three stocks announced increases of 20% or more!

Quarterly Review of DivGro, Q1-2018

This is the 21^st quarterly review of DivGro, my portfolio of dividend growth stocks. I switched to dividend growth investing in January 2013 to generate a reliable and growing dividend income stream. DivGro now generates more than $4,000 of dividend income every quarter!

My quarterly reviews provide a summary of dividend income, dividend changes, and transactions executed in the past quarter. I also provide some graphs showing various portfolio statistics. While these reviews are mostly informational, they help me to track progress over time.