Industrials

3M Joins the 3% Dividend Club in the Dow, With Dividend Hike and Huge Buyback

Jon C. Ogg

Published: February 2, 2016 4:51 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 1:43 pm

3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) has managed to recover handily from its lows of January. Still, its stock price is lower than it was at the end of 2015. Now 3M is trying to see if a larger dividend and stock buyback will be enough to entice new shareholders.

After Tuesday’s close, 3M said that its board of directors declared a dividend of $1.11 per common share for the first quarter of 2016. What matters here is that this constitutes an 8% dividend hike from the $1.025 prior payout seen during the last four quarterly payouts.

In a further effort to return more capital to shareholders, 3M said that its board of directors also authorized the repurchase of up to $10 billion worth of its outstanding common stock. The new plan replaces the prior plan and this new authorization has no pre-established closing date.

3M is no stranger to returning capital to its shareholders. It announced an impressive $12 billion share buyback plan back in 2014. 3M’s history at that time showed that it had spent $5.2 billion on buybacks in 2013, up from $2.2 billion in 2012.

24/7 Wall St.
5 Huge January Stock Buybacks Too Big to Ignore