Dividend Increases: July 22-26, 2019 (Part 2: Financials Sector)

Last week, 30 companies in the CCC List announced dividend increases. When so many companies increasing their dividends, I  break up my summary articles into two or more parts. That way, the articles aren't too long and I can include more FASTgraphs charts of stocks with compelling earnings growth.

Part 1 of this three-part article dividend increases announced for stocks in the Utilities and Energy sectors. This is Part 2, which covers dividend increases of stocks in the Financials sector. In Part 3, I'll report on dividend increases for the remaining sectors.

Dividend Increases: July 22-26, 2019 (Part 1: Utilities and Energy Sector Stocks)

Last week, 30 of the companies I track announced dividend increases. This three-part article provides a summary of these increases and provides several FASTGraph charts of stocks that exhibit impressive earnings growth.

I like monitoring dividend increases because I consider companies that regularly increase their dividends to be candidates for further analysis and possible investment.

Part 1 of this article covers dividend increases announced for stocks in the Utilities and Energy sectors. Part 2 and Part 3 will cover dividend increases of stocks in the remaining sectors.

DivGro Stocks Ranked By Quality Score

My DivGro Pulse articles focus on the strategy of dividend growth [DG] investment.

Generally, I want to buy the highest quality DG stocks at the deepest possible discounts. Ideally, those stocks would offer the highest dividend yields and double-digit percentage dividend growth rates. I would prefer a fully-diversified and equally-weighted portfolio with very little risk and exceptional, market-beating returns.

If only all of this were possible!

10 Dividend Growth Stocks July 2019

The CCC list is an excellent resource for dividend growth investors. It contains nearly 900 stocks trading on U.S. exchanges that have paid higher dividends for at least five consecutive calendar years. An accompanying spreadsheet provides valuable data and is updated monthly, courtesy of Justin Law.

In this article, I rank a subset of the CCC stocks and present the 10 top-ranked stocks for consideration. I use a ranking system that assigns letter grades to stocks relative to their performance among sector peers. Using a sector-oriented ranking system avoids the problems associated with ranking dissimilar stocks.

This month I decided to rank CCC stocks in the Materials sector.

Expired Options (July 2019)

Last Friday was July's main options expiration day. I had several options slated for expiration and this short article explains what happened.

I usually write monthly options update articles to summarize my options trades and also to keep track of options income. Each update serves as a status report on open options and potential obligations.

When options expire, I no longer have any associated obligations. The options premium collected become free and clear, also known as secured. Since I started options trading to boost DivGro's dividend income, I've secured options income totaling $28,018.

Dividend Increases: July 15-19, 2019

One way to identify dividend growth stocks for further analysis is to monitor dividend increases. I like monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list. Companies that regularly raise dividends show confidence in the potential growth of future earnings.

This article summarizes dividend increase announcements in the past week. Two stocks in my portfolio announced increases.

Five of this week's dividend increases are double-digit percentage increases!

Quarterly Review of DivGro: Q2-2019

Welcome to the Q2-2019 review of my portfolio of dividend growth stocks, DivGro! My quarterly reviews provide a summary of dividend income, dividend changes, and transactions executed in the past quarter. I also provide some charts showing various portfolio statistics. While these reviews are mostly informational, they help me to track progress over time.

I started DivGro in 2013 to focus on dividend growth investing, growing the portfolio into a powerful dividend-generating machine. DivGro now generates dividend income averaging $2,026 per month.

My portfolio generated dividend income totaling $6,340 this quarter and I'm projecting dividend income of at least $6,078 per quarter going forward.

Dividend Increases: July 1-12, 2019

I like monitoring dividend increase announcements as it helps me identify candidates for further analysis.

In the past two weeks, several companies declared dividend increases. I'm happy to say I own stock in two of these companies.

Four increases are double-digit percentage increases!

High-Quality Dividend Growth Stocks With Higher Yields

In a recent article, I ranked the Dividend Aristocrats using a modified version of David Van Knapp's quality scoring system. The system employs five widely used quality indicators from independent sources and assigns 0-5 points to each quality indicator, for a maximum of 25 points.

While there are exceptions, the highest quality Dividend Aristocrats are low yielding stocks with yields less than 3%. In this article, I'm presenting high-quality dividend growth [DG] stocks yielding at least 3%. Note that David Van Knapp's original article presented high-quality DG stocks yielding 4% or more.

The article includes tables listing quality indicators, key metrics, and fair value estimates.

Monthly Review Of DivGro: June 2019

Once a month, I review my DivGro portfolio of dividend growth stocks and provide a summary of dividends collected. Additionally, I detail buy and sell transactions and how those transactions impacted my portfolio's projected annual dividend income (PADI).

In June, I opened one new position due to an options assignment. Additionally, I reduced my holdings in two positions, also due to options assignments. Five of my stocks announced dividend increases. The net result of these transactions is that PADI decreased by about 5.4% in June. Year over year, PADI increased by 16%.

As for dividend income, in June I received dividends totaling $3,529 from 42 stocks in my portfolio, a year over year increase of 37%. So far in 2019, I've collected $13,070 in dividends or about 52% of my 2019 goal of $25,200.

Summary Of Dividend Increases In Q2-2019

In this article, I summarize the dividend increases announced in the second quarter of 2019 (Q2-2019), as summarized in my weekly Dividend Increases article series.

My weekly articles cover dividend increases for a selection of dividend growth stocks in the CCC list. The following screens determine the selection:

     • Dividend Yield ≥ 1.0%
     • Market cap ≥ $1 billion
     • No stocks that are being acquired
     • No Over-The-Counter or Pink Sheet stocks

Options Update: June 2019

I write monthly options update articles to summarize options trades and to keep track of options income. The updates serve as a status report on open options and potential obligations.

My monthly target for options income is $1,750 and I'm happy to report that June's total exceeded that target. However, I'm still a little behind the pace needed to collect $21,000 in options income in 2019.

This month I'm reporting on now fewer than three assignments, plus a couple of expirations and several income-generating trades.

The Dividend Kings Ranked By Quality Score

Dividend Kings are companies that have increased their dividend payouts for at least 50 consecutive years.

In this companion article to one ranking Dividend Aristocrats, I use a slightly modified version of David Van Knapp's quality ranking system to rank the Dividend Kings. The system employs five widely used quality indicators from independent sources and assigns 0-5 points to each quality indicator, for a maximum of 25 points.

Of the 26 Dividend Kings, 13 have quality scores in the 20-25 range, and five of the remaining stocks have quality scores below 15 points. There are some high-quality Dividend Kings!

Dividend Increases: June 24-28, 2019

I write a weekly report summarizing dividend increases of dividend growth stocks. Monitoring dividend increases is one way to identify candidates for further analysis.

Last week, several companies announced dividend increases, including one of the stocks I hold in my portfolio.

Two stocks will increase their dividends by more than 10%!