09-03-2022, 03:32 AM
Regarding getting rid of MMM... well there is this saying: better late than never.
Litigations come and go, and can be very damaging in the short term but in the USA they are a part of being a big business. No way around it. So I wouldn't be too worried about that.
However, a few years ago (perhaps in 2019?) I did a pretty in-depth evaluation of MMM, and mainly compared it to HON which is the main industrial company in my portfolio.
Back then it was already starting to look like MMM was getting into trouble with their very slow growth numbers. If I recall correctly most of the EPS growth came from share repurchases, and overall it looked like a "slowly dying dinosaur" to me. Sure, the dividend yield was good. Sure, the dividend was sustainable. I believe my final conclusion was that it was an ok company with a great history, and it's not like I was against owning it, but why would I own it when there are so much better options out there?
I haven't followed it closely since then, so I'm definitely not up to date on the current hassle around it. But seems like those growth issues are still there, and if they have been this persistent for this long during this amount of ridiculous government stimulus (on a global level) then it's definitely not a good sign. So I think that those who own MMM should indeed consider that, while it's still probably an ok company to own, is it better than the other similar options?
Litigations come and go, and can be very damaging in the short term but in the USA they are a part of being a big business. No way around it. So I wouldn't be too worried about that.
However, a few years ago (perhaps in 2019?) I did a pretty in-depth evaluation of MMM, and mainly compared it to HON which is the main industrial company in my portfolio.
Back then it was already starting to look like MMM was getting into trouble with their very slow growth numbers. If I recall correctly most of the EPS growth came from share repurchases, and overall it looked like a "slowly dying dinosaur" to me. Sure, the dividend yield was good. Sure, the dividend was sustainable. I believe my final conclusion was that it was an ok company with a great history, and it's not like I was against owning it, but why would I own it when there are so much better options out there?
I haven't followed it closely since then, so I'm definitely not up to date on the current hassle around it. But seems like those growth issues are still there, and if they have been this persistent for this long during this amount of ridiculous government stimulus (on a global level) then it's definitely not a good sign. So I think that those who own MMM should indeed consider that, while it's still probably an ok company to own, is it better than the other similar options?