3M COMPANY $110 (New York symbol MMM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 690.2 million; Market cap: $75.9 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.3m.com) makes over 55,000 consumer and industrial products.
The company plans to spend 6% of its revenue on research by 2017, up from 5.5% in 2012. That will slow 3M’s earnings growth, but it has a long history of developing successful new products. Right now, 34% of the company’s revenue comes from items it has launched in the past five years. The extra research spending should raise this figure to 40% by 2017.
3M is a buy.