July 2017 dividend income report and new buys

This afternoon I received my last dividend for the month of July so it’s time for my montly report 🙂

July 2017 dividend income:

• Coca Cola: 9.65EUR
• Nike: 4.23EUR
• Philip Morris: 49.85EUR
• GlaxoSmithKline: 22.63EUR
• General Electric: 6.09EUR

Those who regularly read this blog probably already know this but all earnings listed above are after all applicable taxes. In total, the July 2017 income adds up to 92.45EUR so this breaks my four-month streak of +100EUR reports.

Dividend increases:

• Omega Healthcare Investors: +1.6%
• PZ Cussons: +2.0%

Dividend promises from Kinder Morgan!
Kinder Morgan released its earnings this month and promised investors that it aims to significantly increase its dividend the coming years. Back in 2015, pipeline company received a lot of flack as its debt situation forced it to cut its dividend by a massive 75 percent. This was a hard pill to swallow for a lot of investors as many had bought the stock for the combination of a high starting yield and the promise of high dividend growth. Instead of 10 percent yearly dividend growth through 2020, the rapidly deteriorating market situation resulted in a dividend cut from $2.00 to $0.50 per share.

Reducing debt became a priority and the firm is now projecting net-debt-to-adjusted EBITDA of  ~5.2 by year-end. That’s still pretty high but Kinder Morgan deems this is low enough to boost its dividend. Kinder Morgan promises it will raise its dividend in Q1 2018 and targets a total dividend of $0.80 per share for 2018. If things go well, this should climb to $1.0 in 2019 and $1.25 in 2020.

2018 government budget to contain nice treat for Belgian DGIs?
The Belgian government is once again reviewing policy and trying to figure out next year’s budget. The last couple of years this was bad news for Belgian investors as our government gradually increased the dividend tax from 25 percent to 30 percent. They also introduced a tax on speculation but that silly tax has already been repealed as it actually hurt the budget (because people changed their behavior which resulted in lower stock market transaction tax).

Anyway, this year there are two investing-related fiscal measures on the table. Prime minister Michel (MR) thought he could get an easy deal by giving each of the four parties in our government a treat.

First up, the Christian democrats (CD&V) still want a “fair tax” trophy and our prime minister thought he could meet this demand by proposing a tax on stock market portfolios. From what has leaked to the press, the proposal called for a tax on portfolios with more than 200,000EUR in assets. The Flemish liberals (Open VLD) fear this tax (or future iterations of it) will hurt the middle class and the Flemish nationalists (N-VA) are also against it. As such, budget talks between the four parties that make up the Belgian government are once again very tough.

Now you can hardly make this stuff up, but Michel’s deal also includes a treat for investors. Belgian is a country of savers but very few people invest in stocks. Open VLD wants to change this by encouraging people to invest their savings. At the moment, interest income of up to 1880EUR a year from regulated savings accounts is not subject to taxes. The idea here is to expand this policy to other investments like stocks.

In the current low-interest environment, this would stimulate people to invest in dividend-paying stocks. My current 2018 net dividend income projection is around 1500EUR but this fiscal measure could take it over the 2000EUR mark. It’s too early to celebrate as it may not make it into the final 2018 budget, but if it does it would be a massive dividend increase for me!

New buys
Since my last dividend income report, I’ve expanded my position in drug maker Gilead (GILD) and initiated a position in Danish wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems (CPH:VWS). That marks my first dedicated investment in renewable energy.

Which stocks did you buy this month?