And so ends the first half of 2020. Needless to say, the tumult of 2020 just keeps on rolling. In addition to the continued civil unrest across US cities and the number of COVID-19 cases rising in many states with relaxed quarantine rules, the stock market’s 50 or so days of recovery came to an end with June being a very volatile month for investors (which is not an entirely bad thing, as it means fresh buying opportunities to lock in some good dividend yields). Overall, there was little good news in June.
So let’s do the numbers and see how June’s dividend income played out.
AWP $ 44.00
BGY $ 33.80
CHW $ 21.00*
CIK $ 22.50*
CLM $ 46.33*
DHY $ 28.88
EAD $ 9.44
EDF $ 20.00*
EHI $ 26.80
EXG $ 92.40*
HQL $153.00
NCV $ 29.75
PFN $ 36.00
ZTR $ 24.00
USA $ 42.00
TOTAL $629.90
* Includes Return of Capital
Well, $629.90 is nothing to sneeze at, but it’s nothing that excites me either.
As expected, more dividend cuts made their impact felt in June. EAD slightly trimmed its dividend from 5.97 cents per share to 5.90 cents per share (-1.2%), which is just a slight nick. HQL, with its ever fluctuating quarterly dividend, cut its dividend from last quarter’s 37.0 cents per share to 34.0 cents per share this quarter. ZTR sharply reduced its monthly dividend from 11.3 cents per share to 8.0 cents (a -29.2% cut!). Finally, USA cut its quarterly dividend down from 17.0 cents per share to 14.0 cents (a -17.6% cut).
Because I needed the money, in early June I sold 80 shares of NRZ at $9.05 per share. Later in the month, I sold another 80 shares of NRZ at $7.80 per share.
Finally, the end of June also marks the end of another quarter. So how did Q2 2020 compare with Q2 2019? In 2019, Q2’s total was $2583.14 and in 2020 Q2’s total was $2162.18. That’s a -16.3% decline, which can be attributed to dividend cuts and stock sales over the past year, plus no new growth in dividend income due to very few stock buys.
Overall, June was an okay month but the pains of dividend cuts and stock sell offs are being felt as my situation slowly deteriorates.
Image Credit: jarmoluk (pixabay.com)
It has sure been a tough year so far. Still, you did well with nearly $630 in dividend income despite the cuts and sales. Keep hanging in there and things will be fine in the long term. 🙂
Thanks for visiting MDD! I appreciate your optimism. Still, I will be soooo glad when 2020 is in the rear view mirror. Not only has it been a lousy year on a national level with everything that’s happened the past few months, but it hasn’t been good on a personal level as well, having lost a couple friends and an acquaintance this year. Like I told a friend recently, I wish I could just take a 4 month nap, do my voting, then nap again until January 1st.
That USA cut stinks – However, I have been wondering if it’s a good time to add to that position? It’s currently yielding about 10%, and if the NAV goes up, and the distribution goes back to $0.17, an investment now could have YOC of ~ 13%….
Thanks for commenting Jake. Given the market’s volatility, now is a good time to buy when the market has a down day. Dividend stocks with 10% or greater yields, like USA, are more easily found than in May or early June when the market was having rally after rally.
Welp I bought some more USA after you posted and then today they *increased* it by 14% 🙂 Now just a penny shy of where it was.
Glad to see you timed your USA buy well. Good for you! Enjoy the future dividends from your latest buy. 🙂