High dollar hurts sales but not 3M’s dividend

Article Excerpt

3M COMPANY $185 (New York symbol MMM; Income Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 582.3 million; Market cap: $107.7 billion; Dividend yield: 2.9%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.3m.com) started up in 1902 as the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company. While it started off making sandpaper and abrasives for industrial clients, but it later developed other consumer and manufacturing-related goods. They included pressure-sensitive masking and packaging tape, audio-recording tape and reflective highway markings. Today, 3M makes more than 60,000 items, including air purifiers, medical device components and bandages. Top-selling brands include Post-it notes, Scotch tape, Scotch-Brite cleaning products, Scotchguard protection and Thinsulate insulation. Over a century of uninterrupted dividends Starting with the March 2018 payment, 3M investors received a quarterly dividend of $1.36 a share, up 15.7% from $1.175. The new annual rate of $5.44 yields 2.9%. The company has paid dividends continuously for over 100 years and has increased that rate each year for the past 60 years. 3M’s sales rose 3.1%, from…