Any experienced investor will tell you that finding a great dividend stock is easier said than done. It's for this reason that experienced investors have developed such an affinity for 3M (MMM 0.23%).
But what exactly makes a dividend stock like 3M such a great addition to an income investor's portfolio? As Motley Fool contributor John Maxfield discusses in the video below, there are at least three reasons.
In the first case, its 2.4% yield handily beats the 1.93% yield on the S&P 500, which is a proxy for the biggest and best publicly traded companies in America. Second, it's paid uninterrupted dividends for 56 consecutive years, showing that income investors can feel comfortable that it won't break this streak the next time the economy turns down. And third, 3M's quarterly payout has increased consistently over the past three decades.
Want to learn more? Check out the following video in which John delves deeper into the reasons that dividend investors love 3M.
