The Walton Family Got Much Richer This Year

Most of the richest people in the world are tech executives. A large portion of those are founders, such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos. However, high on the Bloomberg Billionaire list are members of the Walton family. All are the children of Walmart (NYSE: WMT) founder Sam Walton, who died in 1992 at the age of 74.

Jim, Bob, and Alice Walton are each worth $117 billion, representing an increase of just over $5 billion each this year. This is based almost exclusively on their ownership of 45% of the outstanding Walmart shares. Walmart’s market capitalization is $754 billion, making it the 12th most valuable company in the world.

None of Sam Walton’s children have remained on the board. Greg Penner serves as Chairman. He is the son-in-law of Bob Walton. He worked at Walmart for two decades. Among other things, he is the CEO and Owner of the Denver Broncos.

Walmart’s stock is up 4% this year, while the S&P 500 is up about 1%. The stock sold off recently due to public statements from CEO Doug McMillon, who indicated that Walmart would need to pass some of the cost of the new tariffs on to customers. President Trump objected. However, it was an indication that Walmart would need to raise prices or undermine its margins.

Other than the margin challenges, Walmart’s earnings have been strong. Revenue rose 2.5% to $165.6 billion in the most recent quarter. Operating income rose 4.3% to $7.1 billion. With operating margins of just over 4%, it is not hard to see why high tariffs could hit Walmart’s bottom line.

If anything cuts into the wealth of the Waltons, it is likely to be prolonged tariffs on goods imported from China, which is the source of about two-thirds of Walmart’s US inventory.

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