€343 in Dividends in August: An Update on My €261,000 Stock Portfolio

August is over and all the dividends have landed – time for my monthly dividend update. As always, I'll show you fully transparently which companies paid out, how much came in and how my portfolio is developing overall. The cut-off date is 31 August 2026.

As always, the most important note up front: this is not investment advice and not a buy recommendation. I only ever share my personal opinion and my personal investments. I'm responsible for my money, you're responsible for yours – always make your own decision.

Portfolio overview: €261,361 in the portfolio

Before we get to the dividends, some quick context: my stock portfolio currently stands at €261,360.95, and I'm up 1.74% in price, or roughly €4,470. On top of that come €8,775.42 in dividends already received and €15,371 in realised gains. The internal rate of return (IRR) is 10.16%, spread across 22 positions.

My entire portfolio is shared live via Parqet – so you can look at the composition, dividends and analytics yourself at any time. A detailed update with the individual positions and this month's purchases will follow as usual in a week or two in its own article. Today the focus is deliberately on the dividends.

My biggest winners and losers

A quick look at the top movers in my portfolio. Important context: these are not August movements, but the total performance of each position since I bought it – in other words, how much a stock is up or down overall.

Among the winners, Chevron leads with +40.06%, followed by Deutsche Post/DHL (+35.95%), Allianz (+28.89%), Microsoft (+22.13%), Coca-Cola (+20.72%) and Ferrari (+19.09%). Microsoft in particular keeps running strong: it alone now sits at around €3,500 in unrealised gains.

On the losing side, Zoetis is furthest down at −23.18% – a relatively large position for me. Behind it come Novo Nordisk (−20.47%, still my little problem child), LVMH (−15.73%), McDonald's (−11.25%), PepsiCo (−6.88%) and VICI Properties (−6.42%). With McDonald's, one of my largest positions, I bought more despite the weaker price and will probably keep adding.

My dividends in August: €343

Now to the main topic: in August I received €343.28 in dividends – clearly more than the weak July and a solid figure for an otherwise quiet summer month.

Five positions paid out:

• Novo Nordisk: €137.57 (275 shares) – despite the weak price, my strongest payer this month
• Procter & Gamble: €103.14 (110 shares)
• Realty Income: €51.28 (the monthly payer, now 220 shares)
• Main Street Capital: €34.19 + €17.10 – the payout on my shares is still, oddly, split into two partial payments (150 + 75 shares, so two separate entries)

If you know whether this Main Street Capital splitting also happens with other brokers, let me know in the comments – I'm genuinely curious what causes it.

My dividend metrics

A look at the key metrics: since starting in April 2023 I've collected €8,775.42 in dividends in total. My personal dividend yield currently sits at 2.49%, but it's climbing month by month.

The reason the yield is still relatively low is that I've invested a huge amount of fresh capital in recent months – but the yield is based on the dividends historically received so far. Once the new positions have a full year of payouts behind them, it should quickly climb above 3%; long term I'm aiming for more like 3.5–4%.

Dividend income over the last 12 months stands at €6,403.81 – so already €533.65 per month on average, and clearly trending up.

My biggest dividend payers

Looking at which position has paid out the most over the entire period, Realty Income leads with €671.72, ahead of Allianz (€543.80) and Novo Nordisk (€540.15). Behind them come Main Street Capital (€495.14), Munich Re (€480.00), PepsiCo (€440.66), Nestlé (€421.42), LVMH (€363.50), Procter & Gamble (€289.02) and McDonald's (€199.98).

Nice to see: right at the top, monthly payers like Realty Income and Main Street Capital mix with classic annual payers like Allianz and Munich Re. McDonald's should climb noticeably further over the coming months thanks to the recent purchases.

Dividend growth: 2024 to 2027

Looking at the annual totals shows nicely how much my portfolio has developed:

• 2024: around €60 (started only in the spring, so little was invested)
• 2025: just under €4,000
• 2026: already €4,787 collected by the end of August; annualised, it's likely to be around €6,800
• 2027 (forecast): currently around €8,600 – for May 2027 alone the forecast shows over €2,000

My long-term personal goal remains an annual dividend of at least €10,000, ideally even €12,000 – so an average of €1,000 in dividends per month. One thing to keep in mind: the forecast only counts the positions already known. Since I keep investing, the actual figures should end up even higher.

On the side: a free McDonald's share via Smartbroker+

Since McDonald's just came up: there's currently a promotion where, as a new customer at Smartbroker+*, you can secure a share of McDonald's stock worth €20 – including the dividends on it.

And if you'd like to try Parqet Plus* yourself – the tool I use to track and share my entire portfolio live – you'll get 15% off through my link.

Conclusion

€343 in August was a solid result – clearly more than July, and the forecasts for the coming months look strong anyway. The portfolio keeps growing reliably toward my goal of €10,000 in annual dividends. How did your August look – how much dividend did you receive, and which dividend stocks are your favourites, especially for the weaker months? Let me know in the comments, I reply to every one.