Walmart heirs continue to downsize company holdings

Heirs of the Walmart fortune continue to downsize their individual holdings in the company founded by their parents Helen and Sam Walton. Within one family trust, siblings Alice, Jim and Rob Walton still own roughly one-half of the outstanding shares of Walmart Inc. The family has said it plans to keep those holdings close to 50%, selling as needed to maintain that balance.

But individually, the heirs continue to reduce holdings and increase gifts to charity. Jim Walton, 71, who resides in Northwest Arkansas with his wife Lynne, recently gifted $1.2 billion of Walmart stock to an unnamed charity, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. Walton is the chairman of Arvest Bank.

In years past, he has made large gifts to the Walton Family Foundation totaling a reported $2 billion between 2008 and 2013. The Walton Family Foundation supports hundreds of charities in Arkansas and across the country.

Jim Walton’s net worth is an estimated $50.9 billion, according to Forbes. His direct personal holdings of Walton stock totaled 6,351,524 shares as of June 28, with a value of $716 million, according to recent SEC filings. Since the start of this year, Walton has reduced his personal Walmart holdings by 4.2 million shares valued at more than $474 million. Walton owns shares in multiple family trusts which also have reduced holdings in recent weeks.

The oldest of the Walton heirs, Rob Walton, 74, is worth an estimated $49.8 billion. He is the former board chairman at Walmart and still a board member. He recently donated $15 million in Walmart shares to an unnamed charity, according to the SEC filings. His direct holdings of Walmart stock total 3,214,250 shares as of June 28. His direct holdings have been paired by from 3,347,254 million to start this year.

Alice Walton, 69, of Fort Worth, Texas, is the only daughter of Helen and Sam Walton. Her direct net worth as reported by Forbes was $47 billion as of late 2018. Her direct holdings of Walmart shares total 6,748,580 shares. She started this year with 7,183,580 million shares of Walmart stock directly owned by her. Walton has not made any charity stock gifts thus far in 2019, according to SEC filings. She has downsized her direct holdings by 435,000 shares since January.

Walmart shares (NYSE: WMT) were trading at $112.86, up 88 cents in light volume on Monday (July 8). Over the past 52 weeks, Walmart shares have traded between $87.77 and $112.93.