Expect higher dividends from this leader

Article Excerpt

3M—both its earnings and its share price—benefit from the company’s wide variety of products. That helps shield it from downturns in any one industry. In the wake of the pandemic, 3M’s regional diversity should also help protect sales as markets reopen at varying speeds. 3M COMPANY $164 is a buy. The company (New York symbol MMM; Income Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 576.0 million; Market cap: $94.5 billion; Dividend yield: 3.6%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.3m.com) makes over 60,000 consumer and industrial goods, including Post-It notes, Scotch tape, Scotch-Brite cleaning products, Scotchguard fabric protection and Thinsulate insulation. Starting with the company’s March 2020 dividend payment, investors now receive $1.47 a share, up 5.9% from $1.44. 3M’s new annual rate of $5.88 yields a solid 3.6%. The company has paid dividends continuously for over 100 years and increased the rate annually for the past 62 years. 3M’s sales tend to fluctuate with the overall economy. They fell 0.5%, from $30.27 billion in…