Dividend Increases: September 30-October 4, 2019

This article series provides a weekly summary of dividend increase announcements. Monitoring dividend increases helps me to identify candidate stocks for further analysis.

As a bonus, I include ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

Two of this week's dividend increases are double-digit percentage increases.

Options Update: September 2019

Welcome to another options update article!

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

My monthly target for options income in 2019 is $1,750. September's options income was below average at $1,382. After I made some fantastic progress in August, I'm still on pace to collect $21,000 in options income this year!

This month I'm reporting on one assignment and a multitude of income-generating trades.

10 Dividend Growth Stocks For September 2019

The CCC list is a wonderful 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 Energy sector.

Dividend Increases: September 23-27, 2019

This article series provides a weekly summary of dividend increase announcements. Monitoring dividend increases helps me to identify candidate stocks for further analysis.

As a bonus, I include ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

No fewer than eight of this week's dividend increases are double-digit percentage increases!

Expired Options (September 2019)

I had several options that expired on Friday, 20 September.

When options expire, I no longer have associated obligations. For puts, there no longer is a chance that I would have to buy shares and the margin that was set aside as collateral gets released. For covered calls, there no longer is a chance that my shares will be called away.

The options premium I 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 $38,865.

This article discusses what happened with my options that expired in September.

Dividend Increases: September 16-20, 2019

This article series provides a weekly summary of dividend increase announcements. Monitoring dividend increases helps me to identify candidate stocks for further analysis.

As a bonus, I include ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

No fewer than eight of this week's dividend increases are double-digit percentage increases!

Monthly Review of DivGro: August 2019

Every month, I write a review of my portfolio of dividend growth stocks, DivGro. The goal of these monthly reviews is to share updates I've made to the portfolio and to provide a summary of dividends collected. Additionally, I look at how the month's activities have impacted DivGro's projected annual dividend income (PADI).

In August, I opened ten new positions and added shares to six existing positions. Additionally, I closed three positions and reduced my holdings in one position. Two DivGro stocks announced dividend increases in August. The net result of these changes is that PADI increased by about 2.8% in August. Year over year, PADI increased by 20.1%.

As for dividend income, in August I received dividends totaling $1,612 from 19 stocks in my portfolio, a year over year increase of 12%. So far in 2019, I've collected $16,238 in dividends or about 64% of my 2019 goal of $25,200.

Options Update: August 2019 (Part 2)

August was a spectacular month for DivGro's options trading! I added options income totaling $6,591 and secured options income of $9,461.

Recall that secured means I no longer have obligations related to the options that produced that income. When options expire or are closed early, my obligations as an option seller fall away.

Part 1 of this article covered the "normal" options trades I executed in August: an options assignment, an expired option, a closed option, some rolled options, and several covered calls and put options trades.

In Part 2, I'm presenting a few closing spread trades, the main contributors to this month's spectacular options income. Additionally, I'll summarize options expiring in September and October, and provide a summary of year to date options income.

Options Update: August 2019 (Part 1)

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 options goal for 2019 is to collect $21,000 in options income, which equates to a monthly target of $1,750. Through July, I've averaged about $1,711 per month, a bit short of the desired monthly average.

The good news is that August was a spectacular month! I collected income by selling a few covered calls and put options, but I also closed a few spreads early for some solid gains. The net result is that my options income for 2019 spiked to $18,566, just $2,434 shy of my 2019 goal!

Part 1 of this article covers an options assignment, an expired option, a closed option, and some rolled options, as well as several covered calls and put options trades. Part 2 will present the spread trades, the main contributors to this month's spectacular options income spike!

Dividend Increases: September 9-13, 2019

In this article series, I provide a weekly summary of dividend increases and ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

I like monitoring dividend increases because I consider stocks with regular dividend increases to be candidates for further analysis.

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

Dividend Increases: September 2-6, 2019

In this article series, I provide a weekly summary of dividend increases and ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

I like monitoring dividend increases because I consider stocks with regular dividend increases to be candidates for further analysis.

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

Dividend Increases: August 26-30, 2019

This article series provides a weekly summary of dividend increase announcements and a summary of ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

I like monitoring dividend increases because I consider stocks with regular dividend increases to be candidates for further analysis.

One of this week's dividend increases is a double-digit percentage increase!

Expired Options (August 2019)

The main options expiration day for August was Friday, 16 August.  I had a few options slated for expiration on that day and this short article explains what happened.

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 $29,404.

I usually write monthly options update articles summarizing options trades and also to keep track of options income. These updates serve as a status report on open options and potential obligations. In contrast, this article covers expirations.

Dividend Increases: August 19-23, 2019

This article series provides a weekly summary of dividend increase announcements and a summary of ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

I like monitoring dividend increases because I consider stocks with regular dividend increases to be candidates for further analysis.

One of this week's dividend increases is a double-digit percentage increase!

Dividend Increases: August 12-16, 2019

This article series provides a weekly summary of dividend increase announcements and a summary of ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

Companies that regularly increase their dividends 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.

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

High-Quality Dividend Stocks

I've been using a slightly modified version of David Van Knapp's quality scoring system to assess the quality of dividend growth [DG] stocks.

The quality scoring 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. I call the total score a stock's quality score.

It occurred to me that I could use the quality scoring system to find high-quality stocks. I simply screen for stocks that match predetermined levels for each quality indicator. This article presents a ranked list of 36 stocks with quality scores of 24-25.

Dividend Increases: August 5-9, 2019

This article series provides a weekly summary of dividend increase announcements and a summary of ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

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.

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

Recent Sells (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 of my article on recent sells.

I've been using a slightly modified version of David Van Knapp's quality scoring system to assess the quality of my DivGro stocks. The system is simple and does a great job identifying high-quality stocks, and also lower quality positions that may be candidates for the chopping block.

In Part 1 of this article, I discussed four lower quality positions and decided to close one of them, EPR Properties (EPR). In Part 2, I'm covering three additional lower quality stocks and my decision to close out two of them.

Recent Sells (Part 1)

Lately, I've been using David Van Knapp's quality scoring system presented in this article on high-quality, high yield DG stocks. I love the simplicity of the system and it appears to do a remarkable job identifying high-quality stocks. Also, there appears to be a positive correlation between quality scores and my recent ranking of the top holdings of dividend ETFs (presented here and here).

So I decided to rank the dividend growth [DG] stocks in my DivGro portfolio by quality score with the objective to identify and potentially close weaker positions. The results of this ranking can be found here.

Seven of my DG stocks got quality scores below 15. For reference, only DG stocks with quality scores of 15 and above are considered to be high-quality stocks.

Home Run Number 19

More than a year has passed since I last celebrated a home run.

Recall that I use the term home run to identify a stock in my portfolio that crosses the 100% mark in total returns.

My last home run was Apple (AAPL), which became the first $1T publicly-traded company shortly after it became my eighteenth home run stock.

This article presents my 19^th home run stock, a list of previous home runs, and shortlist of home run contenders.

Dividend Increases: July 29-August 2, 2019 (Part 2: Remaining Sectors)

Companies that regularly increase their dividends show confidence in the potential growth of future earnings. I monitor dividend increases to identify candidates for further analysis.

Part 1 of this article covered dividend increases announced for stocks in the Industrials, Materials, and Financials Sectors.

This is Part 2, which covers the remaining sectors.

Dividend Increases: July 29-August 2, 2019 (Part 1: Industrials, Materials, And Financials Sectors)

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

In this two-part article, I provide a summary of recent dividend increases. Part 1 covers dividend increases announced for stocks in the Industrials, Materials, and Financials sectors. Part 2 will cover dividend increases from stocks in the remaining sectors.

Monthly Review of DivGro: July 2019

Welcome to another monthly review of DivGro, my portfolio of dividend growth stocks. My goal with these reviews is to share updates of 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 July, I added shares to four existing positions. Eight DivGro stocks announced dividend increases in July. The net result of these changes is that PADI increased by about 2.4% in July. Year over year, PADI increased by 17.9%.

As for dividend income, in July I received dividends totaling $1,556 from 23 stocks in my portfolio, a year over year increase of about 26%. So far in 2019, I've collected $14,626 in dividends or about 58% of my 2019 goal of $25,200.

Options Update: July 2019

Welcome to another options update article!

I write these monthly updates to summarize options trades and to keep track of options income. Each update also serves as a status report on open options and the obligations I potentially have.

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

This month I'm reporting several expirations, as well as a multitude of income-generating trades.

Dividend Increases: July 22-26, 2019 (Part 3: Remaining Sectors)

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

Last week, 30 companies on my watch list announced dividend increases. Part 1 covered stocks in the Utilities and Energy sectors, while Part 2 covered the Financials sectors. This is Part 3, which covers the remaining sectors.