June 2026 Newsletter

Welcome to the June edition of my DivGro 2.0 newsletter!

Every month, I write a market recap and a summary of my DivGro portfolio as of the last day of the previous month. I also summarize transactions that affected DivGro's projected annual dividend income [PADI].

DivGro contains 55 positions. Of these, 48 are dividend growth [DG] stocks, 2 are dividend-paying stocks, and 5 are funds (4 closed-end funds and one exchange-traded fund).

By convention, I label stocks with dividend increase streaks of five or more years as DG stocks.

Before reviewing changes in my DivGro portfolio, let's recap what happened in the U.S. stock market in May.

May Market Recap

May 2026 extended April's rebound with the Nasdaq leading the way, up 8.36% on strong tech and AI expectations. The S&P 500 gained 5.14%, while the Dow had more modest gains at 2.78%.

The 10-year Treasury yield drifted from 4.39% to 4.45%, while the VIX eased from 16.89 to 15.32.

Source: FRED

In April, the Fed held its benchmark at 3.5% to 3.75% despite four dissents, the most since 1992, and a majority signaling policy firming ahead if inflation stays above 2%. Kevin Warsh's confirmation as Fed Chair on May 14 added political crosscurrents, and markets now price a greater than 50% chance of no change through year-end 2026.

Source: Seeking Alpha

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the change in prices paid by consumers for goods and services. In April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS] reported and increase of 0.6% in the CPI month-over-month, pushing the annual inflation rate to 3.8%, the highest level since May 2023.

Source: Trading Economics

With inflation hovering near 4%, achieving real dividend growth becomes much more difficult. Moreover, the Federal Reserve's inclination to raise interest rates raises the bar for defensive, income-focused stocks. In this environment, investors should favor companies with strong pricing power and conservative dividend payout ratios.

Portfolio Review

This section reviews my DivGro portfolio as of 31 May 2026.

In May, I opened 2 new positions and added shares to 20 existing positions. Additionally, I reduced my holdings in 16 positions.

Six DivGro stocks announced dividend increases or paid higher dividends in May.

The net result of these changes is that DivGro's projected annual dividend income [PADI] increased by 0.3% in May, and increased by about 6.4% year over year:

DivGro's PADI of $54,683 means I can expect to receive dividend income averaging $4,557 per month in perpetuity, assuming the status quo is maintained.

Of course, PADI will increase over time because I invest in companies that regularly raise their dividend payouts, and I continue to reinvest all dividend income (and options income).

Dividend Income

In May, I received dividends totaling $4,176 from 16 stocks in my portfolio, a decrease of 6.8% from April's total of $4,483 and up 7.6% year over year from May 2025's total of $3,882.

So far in 2026, I've collected $21,646 in dividends, or about 38.7% of my 2026 dividend income goal of $56,000. At the same point in 2025, my dividend income totaled $20,903.

At the current PADI run-rate, I project 2026 dividend income to total $54,160 (flat) or $54,450 when accounting for expected dividend growth.

Over the next 12 months, I project dividend income of $54,683 (flat) or $55,405 when accounting for expected dividend growth.

Since starting my dividend growth investing journey in January 2013, I've collected and reinvested dividends totaling $375,694.

Here is a list of the regular dividends I received in May:

• Apple (AAPL): income of $20.25
• Accenture plc (ACN): income of $163.00
• Ameriprise Financial (AMP): income of $61.20
• Costco Wholesale (COST): income of $36.75
• DR Horton (DHI): income of $45.00
• Eaton plc (ETN): income of $44.00
• Fastenal (FAST): income of $72.00
• Comfort Systems USA (FIX): income of $14.40
• General Dynamics (GD): income of $79.50
• Lowe's (LOW): income of $90.00
• Mastercard (MA): income of $52.20
• Main Street Capital (MAIN): income of $26.00

The following funds paid regular distributions in May:

• BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust (BOE): income of $289.45
• BlackRock ESG Capital Allocation Term Trust (ECAT): income of $1,229.90
• Western Asset Emerging Markets Debt Fund (EMD): income of $332.50
• NXG NextGen Infrastructure Income Fund (NXG): income of $1,620.00

Below is a chart showing DivGro's monthly dividends plotted against projected monthly dividend income [PMDI] over the past ten years:

PMDI at May-end was $4,557, up 0.3% from $4,544 last month and up 6.4% from $4,281 a year ago.

Quarter-ending months tend to be outliers. For this reason, I like to view a rolling 12-month average of dividends received (the orange bars) plotted against a rolling 12-month average of PMDI (the blue, staggered line):

Sometimes the orange bars track above the blue line because I don't include special dividends in my PMDI calculations.

Dividend Changes

Six DivGro stocks announced dividend increases or paid higher dividends in May.

Dividend Increases

• Main Street Capital (MAIN): increase of 1.92% (PADI +$6.00)
• KLA (KLAC): increase of 21.05% (PADI +$32.00)
• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM): increase of 18.60% (PADI +$40.53)
• Northrop Grumman (NOC): increase of 6.93% (PADI +$14.72)
• NVIDIA (NVDA): increase of 2400.00% (PADI +$192.00)
• Lowe's (LOW): increase of 4.17% (PADI +$15.00)

I like to see dividend increases above 7%. Three of this month's 6 dividend increases topped 7%, and the median dividend increase of 12.77% is significantly higher than the annual inflation rate in the USA of 3.8% (April 2026).

Transactions

In May, I opened 2 new positions and added shares to 20 existing positions. Additionally, I reduced my holdings in 16 positions.

New Positions

• Kinsale Capital (KNSL): new position of 72 shares (PADI +$72.00)
• KraneShares Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (AGIX): new position of 100 shares (PADI +$43.77)

Increased Positions

• Accenture plc (ACN): +6 shares → 106 shares (PADI +$39.12)
• BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust (BOE): +500 shares → 3,500 shares (PADI +$496.20)
• Western Asset Emerging Markets Debt Fund (EMD): +500 shares → 3,500 shares (PADI +$570.00)
• Intuit (INTU): +11 shares → 66 shares (PADI +$52.80)
• Microsoft (MSFT): +28 shares → 78 shares (PADI +$101.92)
• Northrop Grumman (NOC): +13 shares → 23 shares (PADI +$120.12)
• Travelers (TRV): +25 shares → 55 shares (PADI +$125.00)
• Visa (V): +16 shares → 86 shares (PADI +$42.88)
• Accenture plc (ACN): +100 shares → 206 shares (PADI +$652.00)
• Amphenol (APH): +32 shares → 232 shares (PADI +$32.00)
• Cintas (CTAS): +15 shares → 165 shares (PADI +$27.00)
• LeMaitre Vascular (LMAT): +77 shares → 212 shares (PADI +$77.00)
• Mastercard (MA): +23 shares → 83 shares (PADI +$80.04)
• Main Street Capital (MAIN): +80 shares → 180 shares (PADI +$254.40)
• Microsoft (MSFT): +22 shares → 100 shares (PADI +$80.08)
• NVIDIA (NVDA): +25 shares → 200 shares (PADI +$1.00)
• Tractor Supply (TSCO): +40 shares → 315 shares (PADI +$38.40)
• Visa (V): +34 shares → 120 shares (PADI +$91.12)
• KraneShares Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (AGIX): +100 shares → 200 shares (PADI +$43.77)
• KLA (KLAC): +3 shares → 19 shares (PADI +$27.60)

Reduced Positions

• Chevron (CVX): -50 shares → 50 shares (PADI -$356.00)
• KLA (KLAC): -4 shares → 16 shares (PADI -$36.80)
• Altria (MO): -310 shares → 120 shares (PADI -$1,314.40)
• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM): -7 shares → 58 shares (PADI -$26.29)
• Apple (AAPL): -10 shares → 65 shares (PADI -$10.80)
• Atmos Energy (ATO): -40 shares → 60 shares (PADI -$160.00)
• BlackRock (BLK): -6 shares → 9 shares (PADI -$137.52)
• Eaton plc (ETN): -14 shares → 26 shares (PADI -$61.60)
• Fastenal (FAST): -50 shares → 250 shares (PADI -$48.00)
• Hubbell (HUBB): -6 shares → 30 shares (PADI -$34.08)
• Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR): -6 shares → 17 shares (PADI -$48.00)
• QUALCOMM (QCOM): -60 shares → 60 shares (PADI -$213.60)
• Snap-on (SNA): -25 shares → 35 shares (PADI -$244.00)
• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM): -8 shares → 50 shares (PADI -$35.64)
• UnitedHealth (UNH): -50 shares → 24 shares (PADI -$442.00)
• Eli Lilly (LLY): -6 shares → 30 shares (PADI -$41.52)

Most of this month's trade were execute in order to match my calculated target weights as closely as possible:

Portfolio Statistics

Given DivGro's total portfolio value and the total capital invested, the portfolio has returned about 766% since inception.

DivGro's internal rate of return [IRR] is 14.64%. The IRR considers the timing and size of deposits and withdrawals since inception and provides a more accurate measure of portfolio performance.

I track the yield on cost (YoC) for individual stocks and the average YoC for my portfolio. DivGro's average YoC decreased from 6.13% last month to 5.59% this month.

Another interesting statistic is the percentage payback, which relates dividend income to the amount of capital invested. DivGro's average percentage payback is 39.2%, down from 42.6% last month.

Projected annual yield is calculated by dividing PADI ($54,683) by the total amount invested. DivGro's projected annual yield is 25.87%, up from 25.79% last month.

Since founding DivGro in January 2013, my portfolio has generated $383,443 in dividend income. Additionally, I've added options income totaling $249,779 after initiating an options trading strategy in June 2016. That totals $633,222 in income over 161 months (13 years and 5 months) of investing.

Here is a chart showing DivGro's market value breakdown over the past decade. Dividends are plotted at the base of the chart so we can see them grow over time:

Looking Ahead

Expected Dividend Payments

Below are the expected dividend payments for DivGro in June 2026. Declared payments are shown as-is, while amounts prefixed with ~ are forecasts based on the most recent declared rate.

Likely Dividend Increase Announcements

Based on prior cadence, the following holdings typically announce dividend increases in June. Last-year percentages are rough baselines, not predictions.

Future Editions

My monthly newsletters will be published on or shortly after the Monday after the first full weekend of every month:

• July 2026 Newsletter: Monday, 6 July 2026
• August 2026 Newsletter: Monday, 3 August 2026
• September 2026 Newsletter: Monday, 7 September 2026