Updating your Income-Growth Payers: 3M

Article Excerpt

3M COMPANY $144 remains a buy for long-term gains. The company (New York symbol MMM; Income-Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 571.1 million; Market cap: $82.2 billion; Dividend yield: 4.1%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.3m.com) makes more than 60,000 consumer and industrial goods, including air purifiers, adhesives, bandages and components for medical devices. Its top brands include Post-it notes, Scotch tape, Scotchguard protection and Thinsulate insulation. 3M is increasing its quarterly dividend by 0.7% with the March 2022 payment. Investors will then receive $1.49 a share instead of $1.48. The new annual rate of $5.96 yields 4.1%. The company has paid dividends continuously for over 100 years and has increased that rate each year for the past 64 years. The stock is down 17% since the start of 2022. That’s partly due to legal issues related to earplugs that 3M manufactured for the U.S. Army—there are now more than 280,000 lawsuits filed against the company. In 11 trials to date, juries have sided…