We are two-thirds of the way through August and I’ve gotten so wrapped up in family, work, vacations, gardening, and other commitments that the blog has taken a backseat this month.  So I’ll give my apologies, but this will be an abridged version of dividend growth digest.

Of course I can’t get through a post without sharing a few pics from the past month. Last weekend we made our final family trip before school starts, heading back to my hometown to take in some boating, fishing, and visiting with family and friends.

It was a great trip, and was a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of home. My daughter got her first taste of tubing on the river, my oldest was excited to drive the pontoon boat, and my younger son had a blast riding my old dirt bike from my childhood.

We were also able to see some extended family and friends for the first time in several months, and we had a great time catching up with them again!

July Dividend Income

July was a decent month for income, as dividends increased by 4.5% over last year’s total. This was a much smaller than last month’s 26.7% increase, but in the current economy, I’ll take any gain.

The numbers are a bit wonky with the trades made in the last year, as I added to my Automatic Data Processing $ADP, EOG Resources $EOG, and Watsco $WSO positions, opened new positions in Dollar General $DG and Sempra Energy $SRE, and sold out of Thor Industries $THO and Occidental Petroloum $OXY.

Broadcom $AVGO also shifted the payment of its dividend from July to June, which hurt the year-over-year comparison.

Otherwise there was some nice growth from holdings, as Comcast $CMCSA, McCormick $MKC, and Altria $MO all provided double-digit income growth, and most others were high single-digit gains.

STAG Industrial $STAG provided the least growth at 5.9%, as income growth came almost entirely from reinvested dividends during the past year.

Be sure to check out my portfolio page if you’d like to see the current holdings.

July Dividend Increase Announcements

July was even quieter than June for dividend increases, with just two announcements made.

The Altria Group announcement was a bit of a surprise, as I wasn’t expecting an increase until August. While the increase wasn’t very large, it is still encouraging considering the economy, and with a yield of nearly 8%, it will still provide double-digit income growth with dividend reinvestment.

Walgreens $WBA also came through with an increase despite an expected large drop in earnings in 2020. With reinvestment it will provide about 7% income growth for the year, which ain’t bad all things considered.

Three other companies that I though might announce increases, Cummins, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific, all kept their dividends at the same rates. This wasn’t surprising considering the recession, and I’ll continue to hold them all and wait for future growth.

Recent Dividend Growth Articles

As with this post, I was late getting my quarterly report posted on Seeking Alpha, but I did manage to get it published earlier this week. If you are interested in seeing the trades made in the portfolio during Q2, check it out.

DGI For The DIY: Q2 2020 Dividend Portfolio Update

In other reading, I found Big Thunder‘s blog post on the fair value analysis of 77 companies she follows a valuable resource.

A Fair Value Analysis For 77 Companies

It provides data that includes Morningstar and FAST Graphs fair value targets, comparison between current and historical yields, S&P credit ratings, and David Van Knapp’s quality score. It’s another solid resource for those looking for ideas in an expensive market.

Remembering Bob Wells

We recently lost another long-time member of Seeking Alpha with the recent passing of Bob Wells. He was an excellent advocate of dividend growth investing, a great person, and one of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet.

Bob was one of the people I read when I first started my DGI journey, and his creation of a legacy portfolio and investing plan for his family is a project that I hope to complete for my family as well.

Dividend Sleuth had a touching tribute that tells Bob’s back story, and some of the struggles he was dealing with behind the scenes. The comments that follow it are a testament to the impact he had on the Seeking Alpha community and how he touched many lives.

R.I.P. Bob, you’ll be missed!

Added Site Feature…Forums!

I’ve been considering adding a forum feature to the site ever since I first started this blog, and I finally got around to putting it together a few months ago. There isn’t much for activity there yet, as it’s pretty much just been me posting dividend increase announcements as I come across them at this point, but I’d love to get some discussion started with readers if anyone is interested.

As always, I’d love to hear input from what I can do to make it better. When that means an improved layout, added topics for discussion, or anything else you can think of. I’d eventually like to add off-topic categories like sports and hobbies, I just need to find some spare time to get it all put together.

Closing Thoughts

Looking at my spreadsheet, September should be a bit busier month for dividend increases, with Microsoft and Lockheed Martin on deck to raise payouts. I’ll try to get next month’s digest out a bit earlier than this one so I can make some predictions before the announcements.

Otherwise, I’ll keep enjoying the nice weather as we approach Labor Day, and hope the strong markets continue their march higher.

Best wishes, and happy investing!