Dividend Income Progress Update – January 2011 *

Once again it is time for a goals/progress update. I am pleased to report that annualized dividend income increased in January, extending the streak to 7 consecutive months of increases after June 2010′s decline. Since I began publicly tracking annualized dividend income in November 2007, it has increased in 36 of the last 38 months.

My goals were defined in this December 1, 2007 Investing Goals post and updated in my 2011 Investing Goals post. Below is an updated version of the table found in the original post.

The above information covers the current month and year-to-date through the current month.

Click here for a Detailed Historical Progress Table.

For the month, annualized dividend income increased $374, and Yield on Cost (YOC) was up 0.01%. This month’s changes were a net of new purchases, dividend changes and sales. Let’s examine each of the these categories:

Purchases: The $434 increase in annual dividend income and 0.05% decrease in YOC related to the following purchases (yield at the time of purchase):

• $186 Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc. (PNY) 3.95%
• $31 Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) 3.01%
• $40 Harleysville Group Inc. (HGIC) 3.92%
• $177 Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) 3.47%

All of the above stocks lowered my YOC. As noted in earlier updates, I generally expect YOC to drop in most months since new investments will yield less than my current YOC, and dividend increases will not be sufficient to offset the decline.

Dividend Changes: The $42 increase in annual dividend income and the 0.02% increase in YOC related to the following dividend changes (a=dividend stated in annual terms, q=quarterly, m=monthly):

• $20 Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) $0.34q>$0.36q
• $1 Canadian National Railway Company (CNI) $0.2616q>$0.27141q
• $2 Realty Income Corp. (O) $0.14362m>$0.14425m
• $11 Sysco Corp. (SYY) $0.25q>$0.26q
• $8 U.S. Preferred Stock Index (PFF) $2.32a>$2.35a

Sales: The $102 decrease in annual dividend income and the 0.04% increase in YOC related to the following sale:

• ($102) Paychex Inc. (PAYX)

After January, I am still on track to reach my goal of $15,500 in annualized dividend income by December 31, 2011.

That’s it for this time. The next monthly progress update will be early March.

(Photo: sanja gjenero)