€441.22 in dividends in October. Five companies, five payments, and two I wouldn’t add to my portfolio today.

The numbers come from my portfolio and the spreadsheets in my investment model, so here’s the full breakdown—including the caveats.

• $DG (-1.31%) Vinci €157.30 🟢 Optimal

•$SAN (-0.57%) Santander €135.26 🟣 Watch

• $T (-1%) AT&T €86.05 🟢 Optimal

•$MCM (+0.4%) Miquel y Costas €32.50 🟠 Caution

• $MKC (-1.56%) McCormick €30.11 🟢 Optimal

🟢 Vinci: 4.66% yield and a 12.09x P/E ratio for the highway and airport operator. The downside: France’s plans to raise taxes on concessions and the expiration of French highway concessions between 2032 and 2036.

🟣 Banco Santander: 10.88x P/E ratio, 23.69% payout ratio, and a 6.87% total return to shareholders including share buybacks. The downside: it distributes only 2.44% in cash, so a large portion of the return comes from share buybacks rather than cash dividends. The 65% cut in 2021 remains on its track record.

🟢 AT&T: 5.36% yield, 11.38x P/E ratio, and 2.25x cash coverage. The downside: It cut the dividend by 35% in 2022, has frozen it until 2028, and carries a debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 3.66x.

🟠 Miquel y Costas: 8.35x P/E ratio and positive net cash, but 60% of its revenue comes from cigarette paper, and the dividend’s cash coverage is 0.65x. My system rates it at 25/100 for quality. I’ll collect my €32.50, but I won’t increase my position until I see results from the €130M plan.

🟢 McCormick: 4.10% yield, 8.50x P/E ratio, and 40 consecutive years of dividend increases. The downside: strikes and a current P/E ratio of 8.5x versus a forward P/E of 13.87x, which usually means that recent earnings included one-time items.

Miquel y Costas $MCM (+0.4%) is a highly profitable specialty paper manufacturer with an impeccable net cash balance sheet, but its high exposure to the tobacco market—which is in secular decline—creates a long-term strategic mismatch for conservative dividend investors. The current valuation (P/E ratio of 11.7) appears attractive, but the ongoing capital expenditure cycle of 130 million euros is squeezing free cash flow, and the dividend yield of 2.88% falls below our target thresholds.

It is in our “caution” quadrant, which means you need to fully understand the situation before investing in the stock. I’m holding onto it for now.

Since I bought it in 2020, it has risen 30%, and I’ve received 17% in dividends—about a 3.7% yield.