3M cuts dividend, ending long reign as a Dividend King

3M has officially ended its reign as one of a few Dividend Kings, a small class of companies that have consistently increased dividends for 50 years.

On Tuesday, the Maplewood-based company declared a 70-cent quarterly payout, about half of the previous quarter’s dividend.

Investors expected the dividend cut after 3M spun off its health care business into a separate company, Solventum, in April. After offloading 25% of its revenue and earnings, 3M announced last month it would “reset” the dividend, which it had increased annually for 64 years.

“This is in the ballpark of our expectations,” Wolfe Research analyst Nigel Coe wrote in April when he predicted the annual dividend would come in around $2.80.

At 3M’s annual meeting Tuesday, a majority of investors also voted against the executive pay package, a rare move and an early snag for new CEO Bill Brown, whose tenure began May 1. Just 2.5% of S&P 500 companies saw their compensation plans voted down in non-binding advisory votes last year, according to Harvard Law School.

Brown’s $19.1 million pay package is more than twice the compensation paid to outgoing CEO Mike Roman last year.

“The board of directors takes the results of the annual advisory vote seriously,” 3M said in a statement. “The company looks forward to engaging in further dialogue with its shareholders to understand their views while working to ensure alignment of the executive compensation program with the interests of our shareholders.”