And so December 2019 is finished, along with the year and decade. Here in the Pacific Northwest, December started off rather cold with freezing mornings but ending with typical cloudy rainy days. December was a nice holiday season for investors, as the Dow started at the upper 27000s and ended at the mid-28000s. Not bad. So how did this investor do in December? Let’s do the numbers and see how the month played out.

BGY $ 33.80*
CHW $ 21.00*
CIK $ 22.50*
CLM $ 46.19
DHY $ 28.88
EAD $ 9.44
EDF $ 45.00*
EHI $ 25.40
EHI $ 26.40
EXG $ 92.40*
HQL $148.50*
NCV $ 36.75
PFN $ 36.00
RA $ 69.85
ZTR $ 33.90
TOTAL $676.01

* Includes Return of Capital

$676.01 is good, but certainly nothing to get excited about.

Unfortunately, AWP and USA didn’t pay out in December, but they will next month (January 10th and 2nd respectively) so while it hurts December’s total, it will give a nice boost to January’s total numbers. However, if not for the extra $26.40 payout from EHI, December’s total would have been a bit worse.

December had some bad news and good news for future dividends.

The bad news is DHY cut its dividend from $0.019 per share to $0.0165 (a -13.2% decrease). It’s a slight, but perceptible, nick resulting in decreased monthly dividend income by $4.37.

The good news is EHI raised its monthly dividend from $0.0635 per share to $0.066 (a +3.9% increase). That amounts to a $1.00 increase per month. It’s not much but does slightly mitigate the DHY dividend cut, so that’s certainly welcome.

Also in December I sold off 35 shares of RA at $21.75 per share, as I needed the cash.

Overall, December was a decent, if unspectacular, month for dividend income.

Image Credit: jarmoluk (pixabay.com)