Sell in May and Go Away?

Sell in May and Go Away. How would it affect my value portfolio if I did that?

My value portfolio was returning about 25% in April 2017 and if I had sold them, I would have realized a 25% gain. But I didn't. I didn't because there are lots of dividends coming my way in May and I really liked to see them banked in.

About 2 weeks into May and i was kicking myself for that decision. I see a number of the companies in my portfolio XD and their prices dropped. I know the share price of a company generally drops after XD but for my value portfolio, the dropped was pretty substantial. My return dropped from 25% to 18% while my dividend gained only 2%.

Since I missed the chance of selling, I decided to keep them and hope the price will pick back up.
Good thing I held on to the shares. Today, the portfolio return went back to about 24% and I get to keep the 2% dividend. Not too bad.

I guess there is some truth in Sell in May and Go Away since May is a month of dividends for many companies and there will be a price drop after. But if you stick to cheap and good companies, it might be better to just hold on.