Dividend Increase | 3M $MMM #Dividend

Getting a pay raise while sitting on the couch?  Sign me up!  Thanks 3M for the dividend increase!

There's an old Chinese proverb that says "the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is now".  The reason for this is that it takes time for a tree to grow and prosper and for you to start reaping its benefits.  Dividend growth investing is much the same way.  It takes consistent saving and investing as well as time and patience to let the power of dividend growth take hold.

That's why one of my favorite things is when one of the companies I own decides to pay out more in dividends.  You mean I get a pay raise just for owning a small piece of a company?  Not going and doing R&D for new products or technology.  Not selling any products.  Not managing any employees or inventory.  Not making sales calls.  All I had to do was have the foresight to invest some of my savings in excellent companies.  

On February 7th the Board of Directors at 3M (MMM) approved an increase in the quarterly dividend payment.  The dividend was increased from $1.49 to $1.50 which is a very underwhelming 0.7% increase.  Shares currently yield 5.36% based on the new annualized payout.

The new dividend will be payable March 12th to shareholders of record as of February 17th.

Since I own 40.588 shares of 3M in my FI Portfolio, this raise increased my forward 12-month dividends by $1.62.  This is the 9th raise that I've received from 3M since initiating a position in 2014 with total organic dividend growth over that time coming to 75%.  

A full screen version of this chart can be found here.

3M is a Dividend Champion with nearly 50 consecutive years of dividend increases.  Unfortunately, dividend growth has been anemic since 2020 and they've now given 3 straights raises of just $0.01 per share per quarter.  3M is an interesting case because they have potentially a lot of legal liabilities relating to lawsuits; however, if those come in much lower than expected then 3M is arguably very cheap and poised to increase dividend growth.

Since 1977, 3M's year over year dividend growth has ranged from 0.7% to 34.6% with an average of 7.7% and median of 5.9%.

There's been 42 rolling 5-year periods over that time with annualized dividend growth spanning from 2.0% to 16.5% with an average of 7.5% and a median of 6.1%.

Over that time there's also been 37 rolling 10-year periods with 3M's annualized dividend growth landing between 4.4% to 10.9% with an average of 7.5% and a median of 7.6%.

The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year rolling dividend growth rates for 3M since 1977 can be found in the following chart.  

A full screen version of this chart can be found here.

For dividend yield theory I consider the fair value range to be the forward dividend yield +/- 10% compared to the 3-year moving average, the under/over value area to be to between 10%-20% deviation from the average and significant over/under value are greater than a 20% deviation from the average.

A full screen version of this chart can be found here.

3M's 3-year average forward dividend yield is 3.80% which corresponds to a share price of $158 based on the new annualized payout.  

I consider the fair value range based on dividend yield theory to be the 3-year moving average yield +/- 10%.  That gives a fair value range of $143 - $175 and suggests that shares are currently trading well below fair value.

  

  




Wrap Up

This raise increased my forward dividends by $1.62 with zero effort on my part.  That's right, absolutely nothing to contribute to their operations.  Based on my FI Portfolio's current yield of 2.59% this raise is like I invested an extra $62 in capital.  Except that I didn't!  One of the companies I own just decided to send more cash my way. 

That's how you can eventually reach the crossover point where your dividends received exceed your expenses.  That's DIVIDEND GROWTH INVESTING AT WORK!  The beauty of the dividend growth investing strategy is that you build up your dividends through fresh capital investment as well dividend increases from the companies you own.

This is the 9th dividend increase I've received from the companies in my FI Portfolio which have boosted my forward 12-month dividends by $95.01 combined.

My FI Portfolio's forward-12 month dividends are $11,354.82  Including my FolioFirst portfolio's forward dividends of $235.36 brings my total taxable accounts dividends to $11,590.18.  My Roth IRA's forward 12-month dividends are $1,101.65.  My Rollover IRA's forward dividends are $4,598.26.  Across all accounts I can expect to receive $17,290.09 in dividends over the next year.

I've also started compiling dividend data on many of the companies that I own or would like to own.  3M's can be found here which includes the dividend history (as far back as I can find without spending hours hunting it down), rolling dividend growth rates and dividend yield theory.  To see other companies that I've already gathered the data on you can check out the Dividend Companies page.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Do you own shares of 3M?  Or are you avoiding it until the liability issues are behind them?

Please share your thoughts below.