By zachgedal | Published on March 2026 in Uncategorized
Spring Cleaning: Streamlining the Orchard & Hitting the Target
Howdy, fellow investors! Welcome to the March 2026 portfolio update.
If January and February were about navigating unexpected shake-ups (like the sudden buyout of our small-cap bank FSFG), March has been a refreshing return to steady, predictable compounding. We took the opportunity to put some of our cash reserves to work and enjoy a few organic “pay raises” from our blue-chip holdings.
As the portfolio grows to 23 individual holdings, keeping track of everything requires a cleaner, more organized approach. Doing a stock-by-stock roll call every single month was getting a bit unwieldy. So, for some ‘spring cleaning’, I am streamlining the format of these updates. Moving forward, we’ll focus on the scoreboard, our new cash deployments, the dividend hikes we received, and a much cleaner sector-level overview of the portfolio.
Let’s dive into the March scoreboard.
1. March Scoreboard – Portfolio at a Glance
The snowball is picking up serious momentum. We crossed the $6,000 threshold in total assets this month, and our forward income just took a massive leap forward.
- Total Account Value + Invested Capital (Stocks): ~$5,215 (~$5,380 last month)
- Holdings: 23 dividend-paying companies (Net +1 new position)
- Forward Annual Dividend Income: $68.75 (Massive 15% jump from $59.36)
- Portfolio Dividend Yield: ~1.30% (Yield on Cost continuing to rise)
The Takeaway: Our forward income surged nearly $10 this month! While ~$68 a year (~$5.70 a month) won’t pay the mortgage just yet, it represents a massive month-over-month increase in our passive income stream.
2. Portfolio Changes: Hitting the “Target” (TGT)
Why Target? Target is a retail titan and a bona fide Dividend King. Just this month (March 11, 2026), Target’s board officially declared its 235th consecutive quarterly dividend at $1.14 per share. At our purchase price, TGT offers a juicy yield of roughly 3.8%. By adding this retail anchor, we immediately injected over $9.12 in forward annual income into the portfolio. It acts as a fantastic high-yield counterbalance to our low-yielding, high-growth tech names.
3. Dividend News & Hikes (The Pay Raises)
Part of the magic of dividend growth investing is getting a pay raise without having to ask your boss. This month, our defensive staples came through for us:
- Coca-Cola (KO) – 64th Consecutive Raise: Right on schedule, this legendary Dividend King announced its 64th consecutive annual dividend increase in late February. They bumped the quarterly payout by 4% (from $0.51 to $0.53 per share). Since we hold a fractional position (~0.92 shares), the dollar amount is small, but this is the exact consistency we invest for.
- Waste Management (WM): The massive 14.5% dividend hike we discussed last month is now officially gearing up for its spring payout, lifting the quarterly rate to $0.945 per share.
- Reinvestments (The DRIP): Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), and Visa (V) all paid out their quarterly dividends recently. Every single penny was automatically DRIP’d right back into fractional shares, organically raising our forward income.
4. The “Orchard” Roll Call: Holdings by Sector
To keep things organized and avoid a “wall of text” as our portfolio grows, I’ve grouped our 23 holdings into their respective sectors. Here is a quick pulse-check on the orchard:
💻 Core Tech & Growth (The Compounders)
- Apple (AAPL) & Microsoft (MSFT): Both giants are quietly chugging along. MSFT continues to ride the AI wave, while AAPL’s buybacks provide a permanent floor. We are eagerly awaiting AAPL’s traditional April/May dividend hike.
- Alphabet (GOOGL) & Meta (META): Our capital appreciation engines. GOOGL pays a token dividend ($0.21/qtr), while META relies on massive buybacks. Both are key to our total return.
- Dell (DELL): A fantastic tech value holding paying a steady $0.525 per quarter.
💳 Financials & Payments (The Toll Bridges)
- Visa (V) & Mastercard (MA): The ultimate duopoly. With consumer spending remaining robust, both companies are compounding their double-digit dividend growth effortlessly.
- S&P Global (SPGI): Our newest anchor from last month. A sleep-well-at-night financial data monopoly that just marked its 50th+ year of dividend hikes.
- Intuit (INTU) & ADP (ADP): Reaping the benefits of their massive double-digit dividend hikes from late last year. True fintech and business service cash-cows.
🛒 Defensive, Retail & Utilities (The Anchors)
- Target (TGT): (NEW) Our 3.8% yielding retail addition.
- Costco (COST): The opposite of Target in yield (~0.8%), but its bulletproof membership model makes it a forever hold.
- Waste Management (WM) & American States Water (AWR): Trash and water. It doesn’t get more defensive than this. AWR continues its 68-year streak as America’s longest-running dividend grower.
- Coca-Cola (KO), Starbucks (SBUX), & Hamilton Beach Brands (HBB): KO provides our sturdy 64-year growth streak, SBUX offers a reliable consumer staple yield, and HBB acts as our niche consumer-appliance payer.
🩺 Healthcare & Industrials (The Steady Eddies)
- UnitedHealth Group (UNH): A cash machine that grows its payout by double digits annually.
- Becton Dickinson (BDX) & Thermo Fisher (TMO): BDX is our steady medical device Dividend King, while TMO is a low-yield, high-growth “sapling” we plan to build out over the coming years.
- Cintas (CTAS): An elite industrial compounder delivering 20%+ annualized dividend growth.
🏦 Community Banks (The High-Yield Kickers)
- Home Federal Bancorp (HFBL) & FS Bancorp (FSBW): With FSFG gone, these two are our remaining micro-cap bank plays. HFBL is still our largest individual income contributor, but the addition of Target has successfully diluted our reliance on it, bringing much-needed diversification to the portfolio.
5. Outlook – Staying the Course
As we close the books on Q1 2026, the portfolio is vastly more balanced than it was in January. We successfully traded out a concentrated, risky bank position (FSFG) for two globally recognized blue-chips over the last two months: S&P Global (SPGI) and Target (TGT).
Moving into April, we still have a long way to go and more dividends to be deployed. I will be keeping a close eye on news as more war erupts. Until then, we will simply collect our dividends, reinvest every penny, and watch the snowball grow.
As always, the keys to this strategy are patience, consistency, and vigilance. Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you in the April update!
