Rick T. Wilking/Getty Images
- The Walton family sold nearly 9 million shares of Walmart stock last week for over $1.5 billion.
- The sale brings the family's total proceeds to nearly $2.3 billion in the span of three months.
- Monday's three-to-one stock split means the Waltons now hold about 3.75 billion shares.
The Walton family's cash accounts are a whopping $1.5 billion bigger after they sold nearly 9 million shares of Walmart stock last week, according to SEC filings.
In a series of three transactions, the heirs to Walmart founder Sam Walton cashed in as the company's stock price rallied toward record highs.
The latest sales bring the Walton family's total proceeds to nearly $2.3 billion from Walmart shares in the span of three months, the disclosures show.
When asked for comment, Walmart referred Business Insider to a 2015 statement from Walton Enterprises announcing a plan to sell shares "from time to time" as a way to keep the family's ownership below 50% of the company and to fund charitable initiatives.
Walmart's share price boom since 2016 has added more than $100 billion to the combined wealth of siblings Rob, Alice, and Jim Walton, making them by far the world's wealthiest family.
With a combined net worth of $226.3 billion, the three Waltons are collectively wealthier than Tesla CEO Elon Musk's $209.8 billion, according to Forbes as of Monday.
When joined by the rest of the Walton clan, that wealth balloons to about $267 billion — far more than the next wealthiest family, the Mars candy heirs.
Last week's sales still won't make much of a dent in the Waltons' total shares, which account for about 45% of the whole company. And thanks to a three-to-one stock split on Monday, their reserves of some 1.25 billion shares are now a stockpile of about 3.75 billion.
In dollar terms, the Waltons' holdings remain unchanged after the split, but Walmart expects a new share price of around $60 to be more affordable for rank-and-file employees and other investors looking to buy stock in the company.
Walmart employs 1.6 million workers in the US, with over a half million more around the world. The median employee's annual compensation in 2023 was $27,136.
"Sam and Helen both wanted all of our associates to participate in the upside of the company," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said last month in a company podcast.
"What Sam was thinking was, 'Let's keep the price point in a range where it makes sense and it feels accessible,'" he added. "It just feels better to buy a share as opposed to a fraction of a share."
McMillon said more than 400,000 employees participate in Walmart's share-purchase plan.