3M Co (MMM) vs. Bank of America Corp (BAC): Which Dow Stock’s Dividend Dominates?

Round four: strength
A stock’s yield can stay high without much effort if its share price doesn’t budge, so let’s take a look at the growth in payouts over the past five years. If you bought in several years ago and the company has grown its payout substantially, your real yield is likely much better than what’s shown above.

MMM Dividend data by YCharts.

3M Co (NYSE:MMM) blows Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) out of the water and moves on to the next round of the Dow dividend tournament. However, Bank of America’s persistent weakness shouldn’t be permanent, and it might soon become a much stronger dividend stock once its long-standing subprime problems have been worked through its system. Would you invest in Bank of America today in the hopes of getting some hefty dividends in the future, or is the financial giant better considered a momentum play in a recovering economy, to be avoided the next time things take a turn for the worse?

The article 3M vs. Bank of America: Which Dow Stock’s Dividend Dominates? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Alex Planes has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends 3M and Bank of America. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America.

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