Pay for Walmart's top execs increases
Compensation packages for Walmart Inc.'s top executives in fiscal 2019 showed an overall increase from the previous year's in the Bentonville retailer's annual proxy statement filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon earned $22.5 million in total compensation, according to the proxy statement. His pay rose nearly 23 percent from the year before.
McMillon's financial package included $1.3 million in base salary, virtually unchanged from a year ago, and about $15.6 million in stock awards. He also earned nearly $5.1 million in nonequity incentives.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette follows a formula developed by The Associated Press that reflects amounts identified in proxy statements that are actually paid to executives. The formula does not account for change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings.
Walmart listed McMillon's compensation as $23.6 million. His compensation ratio was 1,076:1, with the median pay for company employees at $21,952 in fiscal 2019, a disclosure required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Brett Biggs, the retailer's chief financial officer, earned $9.2 million; Greg Foran, chief executive of Walmart U.S., earned $13.5 million; Judith McKenna, chief executive of Walmart International, earned $12.8 million; and John Furner, chief executive of Sam's Club, earned $9.2 million.
-- Serenah McKay
Murphy Oil to buy gulf assets for $1.4B
Murphy Oil Corp., based in El Dorado, said Tuesday that it has acquired key deep-water assets in the Gulf of Mexico in a deal valued at nearly $1.4 billion.
Murphy subsidiary Murphy Exploration and Production Co. is buying the assets from LLOG Exploration Offshore LLC and LLOG Bluewater Holdings LLC. Murphy will pay $1.36 billion in cash along with other considerations, according to a release. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter and will be funded by cash on hand and through the company's $1.6 billion revolving credit facility.
The deal adds about 32,000 to 35,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for 2019 to Murphy's Gulf of Mexico assets, according to a company news release.
-- John Magsam
State index follows
rally by U.S. stocks
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 6.19, or 1.5 percent, on Tuesday.
"A nice rally for U.S. stocks helped the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq register record closing high," said Chris Harkins, managing director with Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 04/24/2019