By zachgedal | Published on April 16, 2026 in (DP) Dividend Portfolio Updates, Uncategorized
Spring Cleaning Continued: A Deep Audit, Massive MoM Gains & Historic Pay Raises
Howdy, fellow investors! Welcome to the April 2026 portfolio update.
First and foremost, I owe you all a quick apology: I know I’m about 6 days late getting this post out to you. I usually publish these right on the 10th of every month like clockwork. However, I’ll be completely transparent—I realized that a few of my recent portfolio reviews haven’t been as perfectly accurate or detailed as they should be. I took that feedback to heart. Instead of rushing, I took the extra time this week to do a rigorous, deep-dive audit of the entire account. Every number, equity value, and share count in this post has been meticulously cross-checked to ensure 100% accuracy moving forward.
And honestly, the slight delay turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it allowed me to capture a full picture of what has been an absolutely blockbuster month, complete with some massive dividend news that literally just dropped!
Let’s dive into the completely audited April scoreboard.
1. April Scoreboard – Portfolio at a Glance
Let’s look at the month-over-month (MoM) increases. The compounding snowball is officially turning into an avalanche. We completely blew past the $6,000 threshold this month.
- Total Account Value: $6,655.32 (A massive $1,440.32 leap from ~$5,215 last month! Up ~27.6% MoM)
- Invested Capital (Stocks): $6,654.09
- Cash on Hand: $1.23
- Holdings: 25 dividend-paying companies (Net +2 new positions)
- Forward Annual Dividend Income: Seeing a significant jump MoM to match our new capital and organic dividend hikes.
The Takeaway: A 27.6% increase in total account value in just one month! While part of this is due to our ongoing deposits, our equity skyrocketed thanks to massive runs from our tech and banking holdings. Alphabet (GOOGL) is up a staggering +61.87% (+$215.97), Dell (DELL) is right behind it at +59.53% (+$243.65), and Home Federal Bancorp (HFBL) is up +35.06% (+$172.32).
2. Portfolio Changes: Expanding the Orchard & Automating
We successfully expanded the orchard from 23 to 25 holdings this month, focusing heavily on automation:
- Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): We initiated a starter position (0.025 shares / $5.90 equity) in the ultimate healthcare Dividend King. To build this out steadily, I immediately set up a $1.00 daily recurring investment (next execution is Apr 17).
- Waters Corporation (WAT): A new fractional addition to our healthcare/life-sciences sector (0.155 shares / $49.29 equity). While WAT doesn’t traditionally pay a dividend, its elite compounding profile makes it a fantastic capital appreciation engine.
- Kroger (KR) — Coming Soon: We don’t own shares just yet, but I’ve officially queued up a $1.00 daily recurring buy for KR that will kick off on May 11 to give us some defensive grocery-sector exposure!
- The Daily DRIP Machine: I am heavily leaning into Robinhood’s recurring investments. Every single trading day, $1.00 is automatically being deployed into SPGI, HBB, TMO, JNJ, Cintas (CTAS), MSFT, and Visa (V).
3. Dividend News, Hikes, & Payouts (The Pay Raises)
This is where being 6 days late actually paid off! The mid-April news cycle just gave us fantastic organic pay raises:
- Costco (COST) & Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): Both of these titans historically announce their dividend increases in mid-April, serving as a perfect reminder of why we hold these steady compounders. Costco just recently delivered a massive double-digit hike to reward shareholders!
- Pending Payouts: The DRIP is hard at work. We have a $0.28 payout from Intuit (INTU) arriving tomorrow (April 17), and a $0.49 payout from Mastercard (MA) scheduled for May 8.
- Apple (AAPL) Watch: We are eagerly awaiting Apple’s traditional late-April/early-May dividend hike announcement. Keep your eyes peeled!
4. The “Orchard” Roll Call: Fully Audited Holdings
Since we are focusing on absolute accuracy this month, here is the exact snapshot of our 25 holdings and their current equity/total returns:
💻 Core Tech & Growth (The Compounders)
- DELL (3.37 shares): $652.72 equity (+59.53%) — Our absolute standout performer.
- GOOGL (1.68 shares): $565.03 equity (+61.87%)
- AAPL (2.14 shares): $563.98 equity (+16.96%)
- MSFT (1.03 shares): $432.93 equity (-8.25%) — Our automated $1 daily buy is allowing us to happily average down!
- META (0.59 shares): $401.61 equity (+1.17%)
💳 Financials & Payments (The Toll Bridges)
- V (1.01 shares): $320.45 equity (-7.83%)
- MA (0.58 shares): $301.23 equity (-7.22%)
- SPGI (0.49 shares): $214.78 equity
- ADP (0.90 shares): $182.50 equity
- INTU (0.25 shares): $96.40 equity
🛒 Defensive, Retail & Utilities (The Anchors)
- COST (0.46 shares): $456.07 equity (+1.53%)
- SBUX (3.35 shares): $329.77 equity (+10.92%)
- WM (1.25 shares): $282.00 equity
- HBB (9.28 shares): $183.16 equity
- AWR (2.35 shares): $177.13 equity
- KO (0.88 shares): $66.62 equity
- TGT (0.24 shares): $29.21 equity
⚕️ Healthcare & Industrials (The Steady Eddies)
- BDX (1.43 shares): $221.26 equity
- CTAS (0.58 shares): $102.15 equity
- UNH (0.29 shares): $92.66 equity
- WAT (0.16 shares): $49.29 equity (NEW)
- TMO (0.09 shares): $48.48 equity
- JNJ (0.03 shares): $5.90 equity (NEW)
🏦 Community Banks (The High-Yield Kickers)
- HFBL (34.54 shares): $663.84 equity (+35.06%) — Still our largest individual holding by equity weight and our biggest high-yield winner!
- FSBW (5.35 shares): $214.83 equity
5. Outlook – Staying the Course
As we move into the heart of Q2 2026, the portfolio is vastly stronger than it was just a few weeks ago. The massive $1,400+ MoM jump in account value proves that consistent, automated investing is the ultimate wealth-building tool.
I am incredibly glad I took the extra time this month to properly audit the numbers, iron out the details, and give you a 100% accurate look at the portfolio. We are perfectly positioned to collect our dividends, reinvest every penny, and let the snowball grow. (Also, a quick reminder: Robinhood is currently running a 2% bonus on IRA transfers with Gold until April 30, which is a great way to squeeze out a little extra capital if you’re consolidating accounts!)
Thank you so much for your patience on this slightly delayed update, and I appreciate you holding me to a high standard. I’ll see you (on time!) for the May update!
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