Members of Walmart's Walton family sell $1.5 billion worth of stock as shares near record high (2024)

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Members of Walmart's Walton family sell $1.5 billion worth of stock as shares near record high? ›

Members of the Walton family sold roughly $1.5 billion worth of Walmart Inc. stock at the end of last week as shares hovered near a record high. The Walton Family Holdings Trust sold about 8.82 million shares between Feb. 21 and Feb.

The reasons to sell Walmart

The bears believe Walmart's stock is historically expensive now -- it traded at less than 20 times earnings throughout most of the 2010s, and it's pricier than most of its industry peers.

The Walton trio have garnered more than $45 billion in total from stock sales and dividends over the years, per Bloomberg. Together with other relatives, they own more than 1.25 billion shares, or more than 45% of the company — a stake valued at over $220 billion.

Jim Walton, Alice Walton, and Rob Walton are the top three individual shareholders of Walmart. Walmart's largest institutional investors include the John T. Walton Estate Trust, Vanguard Group, and BlackRock.

Given the prospect that Walmart may continue to buy back shares, the Walton family has informed Walmart that it currently expects to sell Walmart shares from time to time in order to help offset possible further increases in its ownership percentage and to help fund charitable contributions.

Does China own Walmart? Of course not! Walmart is a US based company, whose shares are mostly held by Sam Walton's family, with a large number of other shares owned by various entities including Berkshire Hathaway and dozens of mutual funds.

In mid-2023, news began to spread about the world's super-rich reducing their ownership of shares in public companies. The reason behind this move is to secure their wealth amidst rising interest rates and economic uncertainty.

World's third richest person Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway has sold its last Walmart shares, ending a relationship of over 20 years. The world's largest retailer was once among Berkshire's five biggest equity holdings as recently as 2014, valued at over $5 billion.

Lowes Inc. is a publicly-traded company without a majority shareholder, and Walmart owns no shares in the company. Walmart does, however, own several other discount chains and brands across the US and beyond.

While Wal-Mart Stores as a corporate legal name is rarely used in public-facing materials or in stores themselves, CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement that he felt the name change was needed to be “consistent with the idea that you can shop us however you like as a customer.”

Who is the billionaire owner of Walmart? ›

Personal life. As of 2022, Lukas Walton is ranked 106th in the Forbes annual list of the world's billionaires. He lives in Jackson, Wyoming and Chicago.

Investing $1,000 In Walmart IPO: Walmart offered shares for $16.50 on Oct. 1, 1970 for its IPO. A $1,000 investment could have purchased 60.61 shares of Walmart stock.

It is a publicly traded family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton family. Sam Walton's heirs own over 50 percent of Walmart through both their holding company Walton Enterprises and their individual holdings.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. —

The Walton Family is the richest family in the world. It owes its wealth to the Walmart company started by brothers Sam & Bud Walton in Northwest Arkansas more than six decades ago.

Walton supported various charitable causes. He and Helen were active in 1st Presbyterian Church in Bentonville; Sam served as an Elder and a Sunday School teacher, teaching high school age students. The family made substantial contributions to the congregation.

Walmart has a consensus rating of Strong Buy which is based on 24 buy ratings, 4 hold ratings and 0 sell ratings. The average price target for Walmart is $70.92. This is based on 28 Wall Streets Analysts 12-month price targets, issued in the past 3 months.

A 2015 statement from the Walton family said that its members will sell shares from “time to time” to curb increases in its ownership of the retail giant. The Waltons set up the trust that same year and told Walmart that it had no set timetable for sales of company stock.

Walmart's value hasn't crashed. The reduced share price is the result of a previously announced stock split. Back in January, Walmart announced it would split its stock at a 3-to-1 ratio on February 26, 2024, which is today.

The Walton family owns about 45% of Walmart's outstanding shares through the trust and their main investment vehicle, Walton Enterprises, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Alice, Jim and Rob Walton have a combined fortune of $274 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.