2013-09 Dividend Income

Here is the dividend income report for September, 2013.

The monthly dividend income came out to $395.65. The yearly income so far is $2374.05. This was the most income I have gotten from stocks in one month without getting any special dividends or dividends from Vodaphone.

The income for September 2012 was $315.21, and the yearly income up through that month was $2425.78.

I think my dividend income for 2012 will turn out to be higher than my income for 2013. Despite the fact that I sold a few stocks late in 2012 and in early 2013, the gap between 2012 and 2013 is shrinking. But my income was still greater in 2012 at this point. Also, some companies in 2012 accelerated their dividend payments due to uncertainty over the tax law. As I wrote before, I think that uncertainty was due to stupidity and fearmongering. All of these companies are still paying dividends. Most of them have increased them.

I did buy more shares of ConocoPhillips. I now have 100 shares of COP, and of all my stocks they pay the most per month. When I started buying stocks I got as many shares as I could get for $1000. I stopped doing that fairly quickly and tried to get at least 50 shares of each. My goal now is to get all my stocks up to 100 shares. For some I have 100 shares due to splits. I plan on getting those up to 200. This may be a multi-year project.

Right now I think a lot of the stocks I own are a bit expensive. I know one of my taglines is “Price Doesn’t Matter.” To be more precise, I think that price doesn’t matter as much to a dividend investor as it does to someone who is investing solely for capital gains. Right now the PE ratios of a lot of stocks are over 20. I would prefer to buy when they are under 18, and under 15 is better. For a long time there was a yearly cycle in which stocks seemed to peak around May, and got lower until November. Then they went up from November to May. The financial crisis in 2008 seemed to disrupt that cycle. It looked to me like that yearly pattern was starting to come back in 2011 and 2012. But now in 2013 the prices of stocks just keep going up and up.

There are exceptions to this. The PE ratios for most oil companies is around 10. I don’t know what the significance of that is. Is it bad for a group of stocks to be under the average PE ration of 16 while everything else is above it? I know a few people who have been involved in investing for a while. I will contact them and get their opinions.

I toy with the idea of making a promise to buy something in January regardless of what the prices are.

Here are the stocks and the income amounts for September, 2013:

• Black Hills Corp: $12.87
• Intel: $11.06
• AFLAC Inc: $18.25
• American States Water Co: $21.50
• Bemis Co Inc: $16.43
• ConocoPhillips: $70.59
• Vectren Corp: $19.31
• Questar Corp: $9.53
• Chevron: $21.91
• Emerson Electric Co: $21.42
• Johnson & Johnson: $21.79
• Sonoco Products Co: $19.98
• Exxon Mobil Corp: $36.25
• Archer-Daniels-Midland Co: $11.95
• 3M Co: $8.17
• Walgreen Co: $17.49
• Consolidated Edison Inc: $17.39
• Dover Corp: $8.33
• Valspar Corp: $13.16
• RLI Corp: $18.27

Image from Wikimedia