Well, February 2020 is now done (and being a leap year, February had a leap day), Here in the Pacific Northwest winter is slowly losing its grip and the days are getting noticeably longer again. On the first day of February I got a new niece, followed by a new nephew on March 3. I now have a total of 24 nieces and nephews (22 on my wife’s side of the family and 2 on mine). Yeah, that’s a lot. 🙂
The final week of February ended on a sour note, with the market sharply dropping in response to the corona virus appearing in the US and its potential impact on the US economy. Only time will tell how the corona virus plays out. If fear and panic deepen, then we will probably get the recession that’s been anticipated for the last few years. The corona virus has the potential to be a “Black Swan” event, where something completely unexpected and unpredicted has a significant impact. Examples of Black Swan events include the sudden fall of the Soviet Union, the rise of the internet, 9/11, and the financial crisis of 2008.
With February done, let’s do the numbers and see how the month turned out:
AWP $ 44.00
BGY $ 33.80
CHW $ 21.00*
CIK $ 22.50*
CLM $ 41.69*
DHY $ 28.88
EAD $ 9.46
EDF $ 42.50*
EHI $ 26.40
EXG $ 92.40*
FGB $114.75
NCV $ 36.75
OHI $150.75
PFN $ 36.00
RA $ 23.88
ZTR $ 33.90
TOTAL $758.66
* Includes Return of Capital
Eh, $758.66 isn’t great but it’s not too bad either (certainly better than December’s disappointing total).
In every year’s early months, I fully expect dividend cuts and I anticipated some cuts in February. However, February only saw a single dividend cut, with EDF trimming its monthly dividend from $0.18 to $0.17 (-5.55%), thus reducing my monthly income by $2.50. It’s only a slight nick, so it’s nothing to be too concerned about.
I didn’t expect any dividend increases, but February surprised me with EHI raising its monthly dividend from $0.0635 to $0.066 (+3.94%), raising my monthly income by $1.00 which certainly helps to mitigate EDF’s dividend cut. Also, EAD nudged its monthly dividend up from $0.059 to $0.0591, raising my monthly income by $0.02 (I’ll try to contain my excitement).
Overall, February proved to be an okay month that saw one minor dividend cut and two minor dividend increases.
Image Credit: jarmoluk (pixabay.com)