July 2023 Dividend Stock Purchases

As I'm writing this blog post on Friday, July 28, the forecast for this weekend here in Central Wisconsin really couldn't be much better. The high temperatures are going to reach into the low-80 degrees Fahrenheit with light rain throughout the day.

With my capital deployments complete for the month, now would be a good time to highlight my dividend stock purchases in July 2023. Let's dive into it!

The first stock purchase that I made to start the month of July was a share of Amazon (AMZN) at a cost of $128.27. In the 15 months that I have been building my position in AMZN, I nearly have a 20 share stake (19.5 as of writing) in the tech giant. I will probably soon take a break from adding to my position for a while in favor of another growth stock in a different sector (hint: It's a restaurant stock). Interested readers can check out my investment thesis for the stock from April 2022.

My next stock purchase that I completed during the month was a share of Alphabet (GOOGL) at a price of $119.79. Like AMZN, my stake in GOOGL is almost built up to my satisfaction for now. Curious readers can peruse my investment thesis for GOOGL from last July.

The first dividend stock purchase that I executed in July was two shares of Automatic Data Processing (ADP) at an average cost per share of $229.18. My investment thesis for ADP remains the same as when I initially covered it on Motley Fool in April. The $10 in net annual forward dividends that the purchase added to my portfolio equates to a 2.18% net dividend yield.

My next dividend stock purchase that I made during the month was seven shares of Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) at an average price per share of $61.95. The investment thesis for BMY is unchanged from when I last covered it in June (along with CVS Health and Thermo Fisher Scientific). This transaction boosted my net annual forward dividends by $15.96, which is equivalent to a 3.68% dividend yield.

The third dividend stock purchase that I completed in July was 15 shares of Verizon Communications (VZ) at an average cost per share of $32.96. My investment thesis is the same as it was two weeks ago when I wrote about the stock (and Altria Group). This purchase lifted my net annual forward dividends by $39.15, which works out to a 7.92% net dividend yield.

My next dividend stock purchase that I executed during the month was three shares of Texas Instruments (TXN) at an average price per share of $182.16. The investment thesis is unchanged since I last covered the stock in my May 2023 Dividend Stock Watch List blog post. The transaction raised my net annual forward dividends by $14.88, which equates to a 2.72% dividend yield.

The fifth dividend stock purchase that I made in July was five shares of RTX Corp (RTX), formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, at an average cost per share of $83.78. My investment thesis is the same as it was in June 2023 for my July 2023 Dividend Stock Watch List blog post. This purchase increased my net annual forward dividends by $11.80, which is equivalent to a 2.82% net dividend yield.

My final dividend stock purchase that I completed during the month was two shares of PepsiCo (PEP) at an average price per share of $190.75. The investment thesis for PEP (and Dollar General) remains the same as it was in my Motley Fool article from a week ago. The transaction lifted my net annual forward dividends by $10.12, which works out to a 2.65% dividend yield.

Concluding Thoughts:

I put $2,981.29 of capital to work in July 2023. Compared to the $101.91 in net annual forward dividends that were added from these purchases, this equates to a 3.42% weighted average net yield.

Coupled with the $12.344 in dividend increases that I received in July, this helped my net annual forward dividends surge from around $3,970 at the start of the month to nearly $4,085 heading into August.

Discussion:

How was your capital deployment during July 2023?

Did you open any new positions for the month?

I appreciate your readership and welcome your comments below!