Walton family sells $1.8 billion in stock

In this file  photo customers enter a Walmart store at 406 S. Walton Blvd. in Bentonville. 
(NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
In this file photo customers enter a Walmart store at 406 S. Walton Blvd. in Bentonville. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)

The Walton family sold 12.9 million shares of Walmart Inc. stock worth a total of $1.8 billion over the past couple of weeks, government filings show.

Statements by Walmart founder Sam Walton's surviving children -- Rob Walton, Jim Walton and Alice Walton -- filed June 8 and Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission show the stock was sold in multiple trades for about $141 per share.

The Walton Family Holdings Trust, which held the shares, sells a portion periodically to offset any increases in the family's ownership in Walmart and to fund charitable contributions. The trust owns about 340 million shares, according to the SEC filings.

The family owns roughly half of the company's outstanding shares through the trust and Walton Enterprises LLC, the family's investment arm that owns 1 billion shares.

Collectively worth $235.5 billion, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires list, the seven Walton heirs comprise the world's richest family. Besides Sam Walton's children, the family includes the widow and son of the late John Walton and the two daughters of Sam Walton's brother, Bud Walton.

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