The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

3M authorizes new $12B buyback to go along with increased dividend:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/3m-authorizes-12-billion-share-232600845.html

Last week (in conjunction with the reporting of 4Q13 earnings), 3M raised the dividend by 35% to an annualized payout of $3.42.

Here’s an impressive factoid from the above press release:

Over the past ten years, the company has returned $37 billion to shareholders through a combination of dividends and gross share repurchases, or 97 percent of reported net income.

That must be near of the highest percentage for any S&P 500 company.