After a long but mild winter, spring is finally here! And for the Pacific Northwest, that means warmer and wet days but the trees are blooming and the dandelions are popping up everywhere on my front lawn. Other than the welcome change in seasons, March was an uneventful month for me.

So how was March’s dividend total? Well, let’s do the numbers and see what the St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun handed out:

AWP $ 50.00
BGY $ 38.00*
CHW $ 21.00*
CIK $ 22.00*
DHY $ 35.00
DMF $ 10.50
DSM $ 19.25
EAD $ 9.03
EDF $ 45.00*
EHI $ 25.40
EXG $114.00*
HQL $ 40.00
?? $ 1.25**
NCV $ 45.50
OIA $ 4.30
PFN $ 36.00
RA $ 69.85
VFL $ 15.00
ZTR $ 33.90
TOTAL $634.98

* Includes Return of Capital
** My employer’s stock, which shall remain anonymous.

Given how my dividend payouts arrive every month, there’s one month each quarter that’s almost totally comprised of monthly dividend payouts and therefore is the smallest month of the quarter. With dividends totaling $634.98, March was that month. With HQL being the only significant quarterly payout (and a small one at that), March didn’t benefit from the usual boost that normally occurs when more quarterly payouts roll in.

On top of March being a sub-average month, a couple dividend cuts had a minor impact as well:
• DHY cut its monthly dividend 9.09% from to 22 cents to 20 cents (or 38.50 to 35.00 this will hurt a bit)
• HQL “cut” its div to 40 cents. I say “cut” because HQL is my only stock holding that has a truly erratic dividend distribution. It goes down one quarter, up the next, and back down the following quarter.

I should note that, for some reason, CLM didn’t payout its monthly $47.30 for March. This is one reason why March’s dividend total is a bit smaller than usual.

The one bit of good news is that with the end of March comes the end of the first quarter. Q1’s dividend total is $2421.27, which is 9.3% greater than 2017’s Q1 of $2215.26. Not bad.

After a lackluster month, I’m looking forward to April, as I will receive my first NRZ dividend payout which will give a welcome boost to the month’s dividend payout total.

Image Credit: jarmoluk (pixabay.com)