With February done, March is now here and spring is in the air. Here in the Pacific Northwest the weather has warmed a bit and other than a few sunny days it has largely been rainy and overcast for much of the past month. The stock market is proving to be quite a roller coaster, with the economic sanctions against Russia have a ripple effect upon the global markets. There are still plenty of good buying opportunities for dividend investors that have the cash to invest. Inflation is also being felt, adversely impacting everybody and we may just see a return to the “stagflation” of the 1970s.

AWP $44.00*
BGY $33.80*
CIK $22.50
CLM $45.20*
DHY $27.13
EDF $15.00*
EHI $26.80*
EXG $103.35
HQL $175.50 div cut
NCV $29.75*
PFN $32.31
USA $60.00
ZTR $24.00*
TOTAL $639.34

* Includes Return of Capital

Over $600 for the month is pretty good, so I can’t complain about that.

However, there is some bad news and good news my dividend investing portfolio. HQL, never having a stable dividend, cut its quarterly dividend from $0.42/share last quarter to $0.39/share this quarter, so that hurt a little bit. USA announced that it would trim its dividend back from $0.20/share to $0.18, a 10.0% decrease, beginning with next June’s payout. The one bit of good news is that PNNT raised its quarterly dividend from $0.12/share to $0.14/share, a 16.7% increase.

Again, because I needed the cash, I sold off the last of my CODI shares. First selling 50 shares at $23.31/share on March 7th, then the final 20 shares at $23.50/share on March 23. What stocks I will sell next, I don’t know. Probably whatever stock in my portfolio that has the lowest dividend yield.

In short, March was a good month but the dividend cuts and stock sell offs are steadily eroding my dividend income.

Image Credit: jarmoluk (pixabay.com)