Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter

Dividend Growth Investor - Recent Investment for June 8, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:11:35 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to an existing holding this AM. It is a company I have been buying this year, as it has been on sale. This is also the last investment I would make for quite some time. That’s because I am getting closer to the maximum I want to risk there, before seeing some follow-up results later on.

The stock sells for 16 times forward earnings and yields a little over 2.50%. The five year annualized rate of dividend growth is at 17%. The company has increased dividends for 13 years in a row.

How to convert an existing portfolio to a dividend stock strategy?

Dividend Growth Investor — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 12:46:51 GMT

There are various ways that investors can accumulate their nest egg. One strategy includes putting a portion in one or a few attractively valued dividend growth stocks every single month, and reinvesting dividends selectively. Another strategy involves investing in something else such as index funds or other investments, using tax advantaged accounts such as 401 (k) for example.

Dividend Growth Investor - Recent Activity for June 3, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:18:26 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I made a few transactions today.

As you know, I am a buy and hold investor. I go through my entry criteria (valuation, fundamentals, quality), and once I find something, I buy it and hold it for as long as possible. I rarely sell, because my audit has uncovered a painful truth - selling has been a mistake. I now rare sell. Notably, I would hold a security for as long as it doesn’t cut/eliminate dividends or it gets acquired. I do reserve myself the right to “other” however.

As you can see that my buy and hold and pretty much never selling, combined with my strategy of buying what I think is attractive today, leads to a very long list of companies in the portfolio. This diversification does not bother me, as I view it as a protection against ignorance. And believe me, the future of say 2046 or 2056 will turn out much differently and in a big surprising way to what we think today. At least that’s how the past 20 - 30 years turned out for me - I am surprised about things that I thought would for sure turn out one way, and they didn’t. I am also surprised about things I dismissed, which turned out to be amazing. And vice versa ;-)

I do hold on to most spin-offs, and that turns out into a big portfolio with lots of companies. Research has stated that in aggregate, spin-offs tend to do well. But, if I end up with a negligible position size, it just becomes a rounding error. Which makes it a pain if you have to report it each month (takes mental bandwidth in a way).

I do hold fractions of shares or a lot of positions too, and have done so for long periods of time. But I do understand that for the purposes of this portfolio I share with you, it may be a little bit too much. Hence, a few years or so ago I made the policy change to get rid of any spin-off shares if the new position is worth about $100, if I do not see myself adding to this position in the next few months or so.

Dividend Growth Investor - Investments for June 1, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:59:21 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to two existing positions. One was initiated last month, and the second is one where I have added to for the third month in a row.

I build positions slowly and over time, by focusing on the best values I could find at the moment. Different companies are available on sale at different times. I also test my thesis on fundamentals and valuation as I build out positions slowly. When I initiate a position, I look for companies where I can allocate at least $500 - $1,000 (which works for the parameters of this project). Then I regroup, and see how things go, before investing again.

I have a hard limit of allocating $2,000 on cost per company, in order to manage risk. I expect to be wrong on 40% - 60% of companies. When I am wrong, I want to limit loss to amount I invested, minus any dividends received. When I am right however, a winner will pay for many losers, and then some. In the terms of dividend growth investing, the portfolio effect is such that the dividend should come from a variety of company types:

1. Low yield/high growth
2. Medium yield/medium growth
3. High yield/low growth

All of those work together to generate an organic stream of income that grows above rate of inflation. Under the surface however, you have a lot of companies that may not pull their weight and may fall on hard times eventually. Some may just plod along. A few select ones (or perhaps more than a few) may pull through well, and even surprise you well beyond what you thought was possible in the first place. But overall, the portfolio is like a symphony, with each company doing its part and playing an instrument or some other activity to get to the desired effect of some good music.

I am in effect planting seeds. I have no idea which of the seeds will grow into mighty oaks, and which may end up getting eaten by the squirrels. But I do know that if I keep planting those trees, the overall effect would be a nice forest that could develop over a period of a few short decades. I just need to be patient, and not dig out the seeds every hour, in order to see if they are growing. I just need to let nature do its thing.

Dividend Portfolio Holdings For May 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Sun, 31 May 2026 00:08:42 GMT

Welcome to the May 2026 portfolio review! In this email, I will share the updated dividend growth portfolio as of May 31, 2026.

The goal of the portfolio is to generate $1,000 in monthly dividend income by investing roughly $1,000 every month in the best ideas I could find at the moment. Based on previous communication, this could take anywhere from ten to fifteen years from the launch date of the newsletter. The portfolio and this project are geared towards long-term investors, whether they are in the accumulation phase or the distribution (retirement) phase.

After 96 months of meticulous saving and investing, we are slowly but surely progressing towards the end goal. I am updating the list of dividend portfolio holdings below. I have included the company name, shares owned, entry price and estimated annual dividend income.

May 2026 Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter

Dividend Growth Investor — Wed, 27 May 2026 12:18:37 GMT

Welcome to the May 2026 edition of the Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter. In this edition, I discuss the companies I purchased for my portfolio in May.

The goal of the newsletter is to go beyond just buying companies every month. The real goal is to show how real wealth can be built in the stock market. The process of building an income portfolio is very simple, but not easy. An investor simply needs to save money and put them to work in attractively valued stocks regularly. The next step involves reinvesting dividends either selectively or through a DRIP. The last step is the most exciting one – to patiently hold on to your collection of businesses for the long-term. To build a dividend machine, one has to arm themselves with a lot of patience and a long-term focus. This means avoiding the expensive habit of timing the market because it “looks high” or because “it is crashing”. Having the patience to hold on to your investments through thick or thin is a habit that is within the control of the investor.

There are a lot of distractions along the way, which can trick the investor into trading in and out of positions, or to get scared from market corrections. Other distractions include switching strategies because something else has done better in the past and everyone is talking about it. While it is important to monitor the portfolio regularly, it is also important to avoid falling prey to minutiae that may not matter a few years from now. Avoiding distractions is one factor where investors have control over.

As I mentioned in the first edition of the newsletter, the real goal is to generate $1,000/month in dividend income from this portfolio. I am going to achieve this goal by focusing on things I can control. These include:

The amount of money I can save and invest every month
The ability to invest in attractively valued dividend growth stocks regularly
The ability to reinvest dividends along the way
The ability to stick to my strategy through thick and thin and hold for the long-term
The ability to keep costs low

Given the fact that I am limiting myself to invest approximately $1,000/month for this portfolio, I am realistically setting myself up for reaching those goals within five - ten years from now. I selected this long-term goal in order to push myself to think long-term, and avoid thinking short-term. I try to select companies that I believe will be around in a decade or so, and will be more profitable and pay higher dividend payments along the way. I also evaluate dividends for safety. I focus on valuation today as well as long-term fundamentals. Without growth in fundamentals, and the ability of the business to grow them over time, the companies I invest in will be unable to achieve future dividend growth.

Long-term focus is important, because this portfolio will also be expected to provide solid dividends for the lifetime of the person who will be inheriting it. I am not just shooting for $1,000/month by the 2030s. I want to have a portfolio that will grow that dividend income stream without additional capital, beyond the 2030s. This is why I try to be careful what I include in this portfolio.

I plan to be diversified, in order to reduce the impact of errors that will be made along the way. The portfolio will be built slowly along the way. Based on my experience, different sectors are available at different times. Hence the portfolio weightings will likely look lopsided in terms of sectors in the first year or so. Around year two however, the portfolio will likely look more diversified than today.

Now that I discussed in a little bit more detail the overall philosophy the newsletter, I am going to list the companies I purchased this month. The full list is in the table below:

Dividend Growth Investment for May 20, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Wed, 20 May 2026 14:45:00 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to an existing position today. The company has increased dividends for 19 consecutive years. It has a 5 year annualized dividend growth rate of 10.90%.

The stock has been beaten down, and sells at a little under 16 times forward earnings and yields a little over 2.60%.

I believe that this company is an essential organization in the plumbing of financial markets.

Dividend Growth Investor - Investments for May 15th, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Fri, 15 May 2026 15:22:46 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to a few existing positions this morning. Those were companies that are typically in the expensive valuation category, but now are less expensive. Experience has shown me that certain types of companies are rarely in fair value teritory, so I should watch them like a hawk for an entry price level consistent with my methodology and understanding of valuation. These companies are low yielding, but offer the chance of an above average dividend growth and potentially higher expected returns.

The companies I added to in my taxable account were fractional shares. Note it makes sense to place lower yielding and non dividend paying cmpanies in a taxable account, while placing the mid and higher yielding companies in a tax-deferred account. If I could do all my investing through a tax deferred account, it would be my preferred choice. Given the rules around contribution limits and earned income calculations however, that is not always a possibility. Tax planning is important, and could save money in the long run.

Investing in MasterCard

Dividend Growth Investor — Fri, 08 May 2026 15:12:20 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to MasterCard, a position which I initiated earlier this year. I slowly building this position out, using the fractional share capabilities at Schwab. You can see the trade confirmation below (you can also see my review here):

This $100 investment increased forward annual dividend income by almost 70 cen…

Dividend Growth Investor - Recent Investment for May 6, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Wed, 06 May 2026 14:08:55 GMT

Good Morning,

One of the most important parts of the Dividend Growth Investing process (and any investment process in general), is finding attractively valued quality companies for the portfolio.

In my case, I look at a few different buckets:

1. I screen the known dividend growth universes - e.g. Dividend Aristocrats or Dividend Champions

2. I monitor dividend increases

3. I look for ideas from my daily life, unleashing my inner Peter Lynch

4. Talking to other investors (this could also be a dangerous one if you do not have a framework for evaluating companies)

I believe the first two are repeatable and scalable blocks in the process of uncovering companies for the portfolio. Let me put these two concepts in action.

For example, a few weeks ago, I discussed a list of dividend aristocrats for further research.

Dividend Growth Investments for May 1st, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Fri, 01 May 2026 13:53:16 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to two existing holdings. I initiated a position in the first last month, and I have been building out a position in the second for the past few months.

Dividend Portfolio Holdings For April 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:31:11 GMT

Welcome to the April 2026 portfolio review! In this email, I will share the updated dividend growth portfolio as of April 30, 2026.

The goal of the portfolio is to generate $1,000 in monthly dividend income by investing roughly $1,000 every month in the best ideas I could find at the moment. Based on previous communication, this could take anywhere from ten to fifteen years from the launch date of the newsletter. The portfolio and this project are geared towards long-term investors, whether they are in the accumulation phase or the distribution (retirement) phase.

After 95 months of meticulous saving and investing, we are slowly but surely progressing towards the end goal. I am updating the list of dividend portfolio holdings below. I have included the company name, shares owned, entry price and estimated annual dividend income.

Twelve Dividend Champions For Further Research

Dividend Growth Investor — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:51:44 GMT

I generate investment ideas from different sources.

I look at the list of weekly dividend increases.
I also try to identify companies for research based on my everyday spending patterns. In other words, I try to unleash my inner Peter Lynch.
I also review the list of dividend achievers/champions/aristocrats for bargains.
From time to time, I also try to apply different screening parameters to identify companies for further research.

Today, I decided to do just that. My screening criteria were as followed:

1) A company has increased dividends for 25 years in a row
2) A company yields at least 2% today
3) The company has a 10 year annualized dividend growth of at least 6%/year
4) The company has a 1, 3 and 5 year annualized dividend growth of at least 6%/year
5) The most recent dividend increase was above 6%

April 2026 Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter

Dividend Growth Investor — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:01:27 GMT

Welcome to the April 2026 edition of the Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter. In this edition, I discuss the companies I purchased for my portfolio in April

The goal of the newsletter is to go beyond just buying companies every month. The real goal is to show how real wealth can be built in the stock market. The process of building an income portfolio is very simple, but not easy. An investor simply needs to save money and put them to work in attractively valued stocks regularly. The next step involves reinvesting dividends either selectively or through a DRIP. The last step is the most exciting one – to patiently hold on to your collection of businesses for the long-term. To build a dividend machine, one has to arm themselves with a lot of patience and a long-term focus. This means avoiding the expensive habit of timing the market because it “looks high” or because “it is crashing”. Having the patience to hold on to your investments through thick or thin is a habit that is within the control of the investor.

There are a lot of distractions along the way, which can trick the investor into trading in and out of positions, or to get scared from market corrections. Other distractions include switching strategies because something else has done better in the past and everyone is talking about it. While it is important to monitor the portfolio regularly, it is also important to avoid falling prey to minutiae that may not matter a few years from now. Avoiding distractions is one factor where investors have control over.

As I mentioned in the first edition of the newsletter, the real goal is to generate $1,000/month in dividend income from this portfolio. I am going to achieve this goal by focusing on things I can control. These include:

The amount of money I can save and invest every month
The ability to invest in attractively valued dividend growth stocks regularly
The ability to reinvest dividends along the way
The ability to stick to my strategy through thick and thin and hold for the long-term
The ability to keep costs low

Dividend Growth Investment for April 20, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:46:38 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I initiated a new position in a dividend champion, which has increased dividends for 33 years in a row. I have watched this stock for several years, but sadly, it was always selling at nosebleed valuations. I do not want to pay 50 times earnings, even for the best of the business models.

Back when this stock sold at nosebleed valuations, the sky was the limit. The issue with excessively high valuations however is that the smallest issue has a very big impact on the stock price. That’s because valuation compression can really sink a stock price, even if fundamentals are only experiencing a temporary bump on the road.

This is essentially what happened to this stock over the past year or so. Growth slowed down. Based on my review, and management, it sounds as if this is a temporary, timing issue. I do believe that this could turn out to be a bigger and longer issue. But if that happens, then the valuation would get even cheaper, so buying on a periodic basis, which is what i do, would turn out fine.

Based on the review and research I have done, there could be a long-term trend that could benefit the company’s business. That being said, there could be some pain, before the long-term arrives.

Recent Investment

Dividend Growth Investor — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:11:53 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to an eisting position today. It’s a dividend achiever with a 22 year track record of consecutive annual dividend increases under its belt. It’s a company that flies under the radar, but tends to deliver consistent results over time.

Dividend Growth Investor - Recent Investments

Dividend Growth Investor — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:48:15 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to an existing position. I came up with this idea after going through the list of attractive dividend aristocrats for further research, which I sent out to you a few days ago. I had a few dividend dollars sitting in the taxable account, which I decided to reinvest manually in an opportunity with good expected ROI.

You can read more about the list here.

As I have mentioned previously, there three types of dividend growth stocks. The company I am adding to today is in the third group. It has a low current yield, but a high rate of past and expected dividend growth. In addition, I believe that the stock is cheap, and selling below intrinsic value. Ino ther words, it has been sold off mercilessly over the course of the past year. I believe this is an opportunity.

The company is a dividend aristocrat, which has managed to grow dividends for 32 years in a row.

Attractive Dividend Aristocrats For Further Research

Dividend Growth Investor — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 03:32:42 GMT

The dividend aristocrats list shows an elite group of quality companies. In order to be eligible for inclusion a company must be an S&P 500 member and to have increased annual dividends for at least 25 years in a row.

There are 69 Dividend Aristocrats for 2026

I love this list as a potential hunting ground for quality companies to acquire at a good entry price. There are a lot of great companies on the list, with solid competitive advantages, who are leaders in industries that have years of success ahead of them.

Just because a company is a member of this elite list however, doesn’t automatically mean it is a buy.

I like to screen the list, in order to narrow it down to a more manageable group.

In my screen I look at the following:

I review the trends in earnings per share over the past decade. Rising earnings fueld future dividend increases. If earnings do not grow over time, then we have a low likelihood of future dividend growth and growth in intrinsic value.
I review historical dividend growth and most recent dividend increases. Dividends provide a signaling mechanism into management’s assessment of the business and its prospects. I remove slow dividend growth, and lowered recent raises. I want at least a 4% - 5% growth there at minimum, although I also view this in conjunction with yields.
I look at payout ratios that are sustainable, that provide adequate coverage of the dividend and opportunity for some capital to be reinvested. In general, you need margin of safety just in case there. I like the payout ratio to be lower than 60%. However, I could make an exception if a company has a proven track record with payouts remaining high throughout most of that period. There are some utilities that have managed to achieve this, as their business is more stable and less cyclical.
Next, I look at valuation. This involves P/E ratios of less than 25 for me. But I also like to see the combination of dividend yield + dividend growth to be close to 10%. Note, when it comes to dividend growth I compare the scenario where we use most recent dividend increase to the scenario where we use the 5 year annualized average.

I present below a list of 18 Dividend Aristocrats for further review:

Intrinsic Value

Dividend Growth Investor — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:35:32 GMT

Price is what you pay, value is what you get

- Warren Buffett

The market for stocks goes above and below intrinsic value all the time.

Share prices are more volatile than cash flows. Share prices are more volatile than dividends too.

Even for large blue chip companies, share prices tend to be too volatile. This can be evident when reviewing P/E ratios over a given year for any company really.

For example, Domino’s Pizza (DPZ), has traded between a low of $346/share and a high of $499 over the past 12 months. That’s a very high amplitude of over 40% in a given year for one of the largest and most widely held companies on earth, which is followed by so many analysts.

Those cashflows and the intrinsic value of the business did not move by 40% in a single year. It’s prices, driven by the fear and greed of market participants, which overshot on the upside and on the downside.

This presents you with some opportunity for the enterprising investor.

In general, it is probably better to buy shares in a good company when it is selling at a relatively cheap valuation.

However, most great companies tend to grow intrinsic value over time. That’s because they are able to grow earnings and dividends over time.

Hence, the risk is that the investor who waits for too long to acquire such shares at a discount may end up missing out on a lot of returns.

On the other hand, there is also the risk that the investor has unfortunate timing and ends up buying a little too high, after which he may have to experience some reversion to the mean over a period of a few years, which could end up testing their conviction.

A lot of value investing has tended to focus on buying low and selling high. I believe that once a good company is acquired at a good price, the job of the investor is to sit tight and let the power of compounding do the heavy lifting for them.

In the Words of Warren Buffett: “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”

I believe that buying a great company at a decent price is a good strategy. In effect, it makes sense to acquire a great company at a P/E of 15, versus 20 or even 25.

However, if you do not invest at a P/E of 25, and waited for a P/E of 15 or 20 that never comes, you may miss out on a ton of compounding.

After all, the real wealth in investing comes from growth in earnings per share and dividends. Changes in valuation do tend to matter in the short-run ( 1 - 5 years), but their importance tends to diminish after a decade of investing.

As we have discussed before, investing is a game of trade-offs. The optimal path is to have the right margin of safety along those various trade-off paths.

Investing is part art, part science.

I wanted to let you know that I added to an existing position today.

Dividend Increases have signaling power

Dividend Growth Investor — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:39:22 GMT

Dividend increases offer strong signaling power, more often than not.

A company that slows down on dividend growth is telling me about clouds on the horizon.

A company that picks up on dividend growth is signaling confidence in their business prospects.

A company that keeps on delivering at a steady clip is somethign to admire too, as it doesn’t happen that often.

Sometimes a company may raise dividends by too much, too fast too however. Sometimes a good looking thing may be a sign of desperation. Hence, why I view dividend signaling as a signal with positive correlation, sometimes the inverse can be true too. Examples include the old CenturyLink (which ultimately ended up cutting dividends).

I guess I have looked at a lot of dividend increases over the decades, so perhaps things start jumping at me...

Dividend signaling works best when looked together with trends in earnings per share, dividends, payout ratios.

If a dividend increase stands out, and surprises me, it’s always a good learning opportunity for further research.

While dividend signaling is not going to be right 100% of the time, all the time, it has been right more often than not.

I take recent dividend increases in consideration when I decide whether I should invest in a security. This is a step during my review process.

How do I monitor dividend increases?