Who Owns Walmart? + Major Shareholders

The Walton family owns Walmart, having over 50% of the company’s shares. Walmart was originally founded by Samuel Walton in 1962, and has since maintained the balance between family and non-family ownership of the company.

Keep reading this post to learn more about Walmart and its shareholders.

What country owns Walmart?

Walmart Inc. is an American-owned company, which was originally created by Sam Walton in 1962. The headquarters is in Bentonville, Arkansas, while it has around 10,585 spread out in the country. This includes Sam’s Club warehouses.

Front view of Walmart supercenter
Photo source: premiumtimesng.com

Over the years, Walmart has established its presence in other countries like Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, China, and India. Although in India, Walmart exists as Flipkart, an ecommerce platform and not as your regular walk-in supercenter.

Additionally, the company is owned by Americans, contrary to popular beliefs that China owns it. The Walton family holds 50% of the shares, having sold the rest in 2018 to companies like the Vanguard Group. 

Who are the top 10 shareholders of Walmart?

Besides Walmart, no other shareholders hold above 5% of the shares. In fact, the shareholder with the most stake in the company is the Vanguard Group. It has 4.37% stake in Walmart Inc., having 120,251,989 shares.

The other nine shareholders include the following…

  • BlackRock Fund Advisors: 2.26% stake (62,078,410 shares).
  • SSgA Funds Management, Inc: 2.20% stake (62,078,410 shares).
  • Geode Capital Management LLC: 0.87% stake (23,838,833 shares).
  • T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.: 0.81% stake (22,234,051 shares).
  • Norges Bank Investment Management: 0.74% stake (20,221,520 shares).
  • Northern Trust Investments, Inc.: 0.59% stake (16,190,712 shares).
  • GQG Partners LLC: 0.56% stake (15,431,684 shares).
  • State Farm Investment Management: 0.48% stake (13,083,050 shares).
  • Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC: 0.44% stake (12,043,285 shares).

Source: CNN Business

How do you become a shareholder for Walmart?

You’ll need to buy Walmart shares, of course. You can find them on Computershare, an Australian stock transfer platform, which is Walmart’s agent. 

There’s no fixed price for the shares as the stock market is highly volatile. But you can keep an eye on this stock chart to monitor the price changes in Walmart shares.

If you’re uncertain as to how safe Walmart shares are to invest in, there’s no cause for alarm. Walmart shares have generated 105% Return on Investment (ROI) during the past five years.

The company also has a history in weathering economic storms. During the great recession of 2008, the Standard and Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) experienced a 40% decline. Walmart only witnessed 1% of that.

The S&P 500 simply means a stock market index that is used to measure the stocks of 500 large companies like Walmart. Investors typically use it as a mirror of the stock market’s performance to determine the risks and returns of the companies. 

Here are forecasts and tips for buying Walmart stocks to help you invest wisely. You don’t have to leap into buying its stocks right away.

Conclusion

Now you know all about Walmart. It is an American-owned company, and not Chinese property. The company’s stocks are also publicly-traded. So you can own a piece of it using the tips we shared in the above section. Being an employee doesn’t limit you as Walmart allows its employees to also buy shares. 

We hope you find this post helpful!