Walton Family divests 10.88 million Wal-Mart shares to keep ownership around 50%
by June 8, 2017 12:50 pm 3,454 views
(from left) Jim Walton, Alice Walton and Rob Walton at the 2016 Wal-Mart shareholders meeting.
The direct heirs of Wal-Mart founders Sam and Helen Walton made a pledge to shareholders in 2015 to keep the family’s ownership of Wal-Mart Stores at roughly 50%. In keeping with that mission the family routinely pares down its holdings.
Over the past three weeks Robson, Alice and Jim Walton cumulatively sold more than 10.887 million shares held in the Walton Family Holdings Trust. The sales were valued at more than $862.344 million and transacted in 10 different block trades, according to Form 4 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission made between May 22 and June 6.
One of the recent transactions completed by the Walton Family garnered a price of $80.22. The average share price the family received was $79.20.
Walton Family Holdings Trust was left with 120,318,879 shares after the last sell on June 6. Those shares held in the trust have a street value of $9.501 billion as of Thursday (June 8). The family cumulatively owned around 51% of the outstanding shares as of the recent Proxy filing from April 20.
Wal-Mart shares (NYSE: WMT) were trading around $78.90, down 25 cents in the morning session Thursday. For the past 52 weeks Wal-Mart shares have traded between an $80.47 high and a $65.28 low.