Walton family sells $1.5 billion of stock in recent transaction
by February 27, 2024 3:20 pm 6,026 views
The Walton family continues to sell Walmart stock to keep its holding below 50% of the total stock. Last week ahead of the 3:1 stock split, Walton Family Holdings Trust sold roughly 8.82 million shares.
Transaction information was from filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on behalf of Rob, Alice and Jim Walton. The transactions were valued at $1.5 billion and represent a fraction of the Trust’s share value in excess of $177.588 billion following the recent activity. In the past three months, the Walton Family Trust has sold nearly $2.3 billion of its stock holdings as Walmart’s share price rose more than 12% this year.
The sale transactions are in line with the Walton family’s 2016 pledge to keep its holdings slightly below 50% of the company’s outstanding shares. The family’s holdings are roughly 45% of the total company shares.
Following the recent 3:1 stock split, the Walton Family Holding Trust now holds roughly 3.03 billion shares valued at roughly $180.332 billion.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the stock split also is in line with founder Sam Walton’s plan. He said Sam and Helen Walton wanted all employees to participate in the upside of the company through the stock purchase program. McMillon said more than 400,000 of the 1.6 million employees own company shares.
Investing in the early years of Walmart proved to be a sound financial play. Walmart shares split 11 times between the public offering in October 1970 and the next 29 years. From 1971 through March 99 the stock split two for one 11 times. Purchasing 100 shares at the offering would have cost $1,650 before commission. Following the 11 splits, the 100 shares would have grown to 204,800 shares through March 1999. With the recent 3:1 stock split, the investment would now total 614,400 shares with a street value of $36,605 million.
Walmart shares closed Tuesday (Feb. 27) at $59.58, down 2 cents. During the past 52 weeks, the adjusted share price has ranged between $60.45 and $45.36.
Walmart is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Index and now at its lower price, it will have less impact on the average. The 30 companies that comprise the Dow also now include Amazon, which recently replaced Walgreens. Other retailers that comprise the Dow index include Home Depot, Walt Disney, Nike and Apple.