The following nine Minnesota companies have conservative payout ratios and a history of at least 25 years of consistently increasing dividends. Dividend yield is annual dividends per share as a percentage of the share price. Payout ratio is the percentage of the firm's earnings that are paid to shareholders as dividends.

CompanyQuarterly dividendDividend yieldPayout ratioYears of increasing dividendsYTD total return

(cents per share)

3M .552.3%36.7 %53 years12.3%

Donaldson Co. Inc. .15.82%22.2% 25 years2.5%

H.B. Fuller .751.3%19.4%42 years21.8%

Hormel Foods .131.6%28.3%45 years17.1%

Medtronic .242.2%31.3%34 years3.3%

Pentair .202.0%38.0%35 years13.2%

Target .302.0%22.6%44 years-14.6%

Tennant .171.5%32.1%39 years8.3%

Valspar .181.7%28.5%30 years2.5%

Source: Bloomberg News and DRiP Investing Resource Center.