I hope you had a great New Year’s Day and that January was a good month for you. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s been a largely cloudy and rainy month, with only a few sub-freezing days, making it a relatively warm January. The stock market was fairly “blah” over the month, with only a noticeable rise during January’s final week.

Let’s do the numbers and see how my dividend income fared last month…

ARR $26.40
AWP $44.80
AWP $44.80
CIK $22.50
CLM $65.16*
DHY $27.13
EDF $18.00*
EXG $60.83*
NCV $23.80
NCV $23.80
PFN $32.31
ZTR $15.00*
TOTAL $404.53

* Includes Return of Capital

$404.53? Nice! It’s always good to get a pleasant surprise, and January had some (but not all surprises are good…).

First, AWP and NCV paid out twice (a sweet New Year’s reward for shareholders) which is always appreciated. The other surprise was that EHI didn’t pay out for January, but maybe December’s extra EHI payout was just an advance for January? Again, because I needed the money, I had to sell of some stock. Specifically, I sold off 100 shares of EXG at $7.70. Other than that, there were no other trades in January, making it a rather quiet month.

Unfortunately, January is the most likely month for dividend cuts to take effect, and January met expectations. CLM cut its dividend in January, from 12.28 cents per share to 10.86 cents per share, an 11.56% cut. ARR cut its dividend too, slashing it from 40 cents per share to 24 cents per share, a 40% cut. Ouch! Those cuts are going to hurt. However, I will say that the ARR cut was not unexpected, given how high ARR’s yield was (over 25%!) I knew a dividend cut would probably happen. I’m just glad the cut wasn’t worse, and the current yield of approximately 15% is still quite acceptable.

Overall, the double payments of AWP and NCV gave January a pleasant boost, but the CLM and ARR dividend cuts will have more a lasting impact. So ultimately, January was NOT a good month.

Image Credit: jarmoluk (pixabay.com)