Updating Our Income Stocks 3M Company, T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Windstream Corp.

Article Excerpt

3M COMPANY $47 (New York symbol MMM) has temporarily stopped buying back its shares in order to conserve cash. However, 3M raised its quarterly dividend by 2%, to $0.51 a share from $0.50. The new annual rate of $2.04 yields 4.3%. 3M has increased its dividend each year for the past 51 years. Buy. T. ROWE PRICE GROUP INC. $24 (NASDAQ symbol TROW) reported a 15.4% drop in earnings per share for 2008, to $2.03 from $2.40 in 2007. Falling stock markets were the main reason behind the decline. T. Rowe Price’s fees vary with the value of the mutual funds it manages, so the lower value of these assets hurts its revenue and earnings. Investors are also moving their money out of stock funds and into lower-fee bond and money market funds. Still, the economic slowdown should encourage investors to spend less and save more for retirement, probably by buying mutual funds or opening up new savings accounts. The company…