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The streak that broke

Four companies have raised their dividend every year for six decades. A fifth did it for 66 years, then cut.

Numbers as of 11 Aug 2026

The full story

  1. Five companies and how many years in a row each raised its dividend, the cash it pays shareholders. Procter & Gamble 70 years, Coca-Cola 64, Johnson & Johnson 64 and Colgate-Palmolive 64, each a green arrow still going. 3M's red line ends in a wall: it raised for 66 years, then stopped in 2024.
  2. 3M raised its dividend for 66 years in a row, then cut it by 54% in 2024: from $1.51 to $0.70 a share per quarter. 3M had not run out of money; it reported $4.9 billion of adjusted free cash flow for 2024.
  3. Why 3M cut: on 1 April 2024 it spun off its health care business into a separate company, which pays no dividend, and reset its own payout to about 40% of free cash flow. The year before, it had agreed to two settlements: about $10.3 billion over drinking water and about $6.0 billion over military e
  4. Johnson & Johnson also separated a business: its consumer health arm, Kenvue, in August 2023. Unlike 3M it kept raising its dividend every year: $1.19 to $1.24 in 2024, $1.30 in 2025 and $1.34 a quarter in April 2026. At the 2 October 2026 share price it pays about $2.09 a year per $100 invested.
  5. Procter & Gamble has paid a dividend every year since 1890, 136 years in a row. Its latest raise, in April 2026, was 3%, to $1.0885 a share per quarter. At the 2 October 2026 share price it pays about $3.00 a year per $100 invested.
  6. Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's company, holds about 400 million Coca-Cola shares. At $0.53 a share per quarter, $2.12 a year, that is about $848 million in dividends a year. Coca-Cola raised from $0.51 in February 2026. At the 2 October 2026 share price it pays about $2.48 a year per $100 inve
  7. Colgate-Palmolive had 41.3% of the global toothpaste market in 2025. It has paid a dividend every year since 1895 and raised it to $0.53 a share per quarter in March 2026. At the 2 October 2026 share price it pays about $2.52 a year per $100 invested.
  8. What each company pays a year per $100 invested at the 2 October 2026 share price: Procter & Gamble $3.00, Colgate-Palmolive $2.52, Coca-Cola $2.48, Johnson & Johnson $2.09, 3M $1.93. The S&P 500 as a whole pays about $1 per $100. This number is called the dividend yield.
  9. Since the cut, 3M has raised its quarterly dividend twice: $0.70 in 2024, $0.73 in 2025 and $0.78 in 2026. That is still about half of the old $1.51. At the 2 October 2026 share price that is about $1.93 a year per $100 invested.
  10. Which streak breaks next? A row of the Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and Colgate-Palmolive logos. Below: J&J split in two and kept raising. 3M didn't. Follow Green Owl if you want more.

A dividend king is a company that has raised its payout every year for 50 years or more. About 58 of them exist.

The four here have gone much further. Procter & Gamble raised for the 70th straight year in April 2026, and has paid a dividend every year since 1890. Coca-Cola reached 64 in February, Colgate-Palmolive 64 in March, Johnson & Johnson 64 in April.

3M had the longest run of all of them. Its February 2022 raise was the 64th straight year, 2023 the 65th, February 2024 the 66th. Ten weeks later it cut the quarterly dividend from $1.51 to $0.70.

The reason was a spin-off. 3M separated its health care business as Solventum on 1 April 2024 and reset the dividend to roughly 40% of adjusted free cash flow for the smaller company that was left. That is the fair version - but Solventum said it would pay no dividend at all while it works down debt, so a shareholder holding both ended up with less income, not the same income in two envelopes.

Yields on the frame are as of 10 August 2026: P&G 2.99%, Coca-Cola 2.44%, Colgate 2.27%, J&J 2.07%, 3M 1.71%. Note what that ordering does NOT say - a longer streak is not a bigger cheque, and the highest yield here belongs to the longest streak only by coincidence. 3M has started raising again from the lower base and now pays $3.12 a year, above the $2.80 it reset to.

3M is not the only one. Walgreens raised for 48 consecutive years, cut 48% at the start of 2024, then suspended the dividend entirely - after 92 years of paying one.

A long streak is a record of what a company has done. It is not a promise about next year.

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Companies in this picture

Colgate-PalmoliveJohnson & JohnsonCoca-Cola3MProcter & Gamble

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