Did I Make a Mistake When I Added High-Yield 3M Stock to My Portfolio?
There are a lot of reasons to like 3M (NYSE: MMM) stock, including a historically high 5.9% dividend yield, a more than 60-year streak of annual dividend increases, and a broadly diversified portfolio. There are also a fair number of reasons to dislike it, including a share price decline of around 50% since early 2021 that shows no signs of stopping. I've owned the stock for a little while, and I'm sitting on sizable paper losses. Here's what I'm thinking about now.
When I bought 3M, I knew it was facing some notable headwinds, including legal issues surrounding product liability related to earplugs it sold to the U.S. military, and regulatory and legal issues surrounding so-called "forever chemicals." I believed the investment-grade-rated business was financially strong enough to weather any hit it would face. Meanwhile, 3M was growing slowly, but I believed management would be able to use its heavy focus on research and development to get onto a higher growth track. And while I waited for that to occur, I was able to collect a historically high yield.
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Source Fool.com
