Who Owns Walmart? Walton Family, Shareholders

By Lyle Daly – Updated May 30, 2025 at 1:15 PM | Fact-checked by Robin Hartill, CFP

Key Points

The Walton family owns about 45% of Walmart through Walton Enterprises and personal holdings.
Institutional investors like Vanguard and BlackRock are major Walmart shareholders.
Walmart's board includes a diverse group of executives from companies like NBC and Starbucks.

You may want to know who owns Walmart (WMT -0.26%) if you're thinking of investing or are just interested in finding out more about the company. For a brief background, Walmart is the largest retailer in the world by revenue, operating a chain of supercenters, department stores, and grocery stores.

NYSE: WMT

Walmart

Today's Change

(-0.26%) $-0.28

Current Price

$106.86

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$854B

Day's Range

$105.78 - $107.57

52wk Range

$79.81 - $109.58

Volume

11M

Avg Vol

16M

Gross Margin

24.39%

Dividend Yield

0.01%

Since its founding in 1962, Walmart has grown to over 10,000 stores in the U.S. and abroad. It's most famous for its prices, which are some of the lowest of any retailer, and for being the biggest family-owned business in the world. On that note, let's dive into who exactly owns Walmart and who's on its board of directors.

Who is the owner of Walmart?

Walmart is a publicly traded company that's owned by retail and institutional investors, but the Walton family holds the most shares. The Walton family collectively owns about 45% of the company. The vast majority of their stock is held through the Walton Enterprises holding company and the Walton Family Holdings Trust, and they also have individual holdings.

Walmart has been a family business from the very beginning and through its growth into one of the top consumer staples companies. Brothers Sam and James "Bud" Walton founded Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas -- not far from its current headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Older brother Sam served as chief executive officer (CEO) until 1988 and remained company chairman until his death in 1992. Bud, who died in 1995, was the senior vice president and director of Walmart.

The family stake is now split among seven heirs:

Samuel Robson Walton
Jim Walton
Alice Walton
Christy Walton
Lukas Walton
Nancy Walton Laurie
Ann Walton Kroenke

To give you a quick breakdown of the family tree, Samuel Robson, Jim, and Alice Walton are children of Sam Walton. He had one other son, John T. Walton, who died in an ultralight plane crash in 2005. John T. Walton's wealth, including his ownership of Walmart, was transferred to his widow, Christy Walton, and their son, Lukas Walton.

Nancy Walton Laurie and Ann Walton Kroenke are children of James Walton. They have the smallest ownership of Walmart among the family ("smallest" being relative here; they're all still multibillionaires).

Who are the largest shareholders?

The largest shareholders of Walmart are institutional investors, specifically Walton Enterprises and the Walton Family Holdings Trust. You'll find the top-five largest individual shareholders and institutional shareholders below.

Individuals

Here are Walmart's largest individual shareholders:

Jim Walton is the youngest son of Sam Walton and was previously on Walmart's board of directors. He owns 31,521,372 shares of Walmart, which is 0.39% of the company's outstanding shares.
Alice Walton is the only daughter of Sam Walton and the richest woman in the world. She founded a now-shuttered investment bank, Llama Company, and chaired the Northwest Arkansas Council. She owns 20,245,740 shares of Walmart, which is 0.25% of the company's outstanding shares.
Samuel Robson "Rob" Walton is the oldest son of Sam Walton and was Walmart's chairman from 1992 until 2015. He owns 7,029,557 shares of Walmart, which is 0.09% of the company's outstanding shares.
Douglas McMillon has been president and CEO of Walmart since 2014. He owns 5,539,970 shares of Walmart, which is 0.07% of the company's outstanding shares.
Gregory Penner has been the chairman of the board at Walmart since 2015. He's also the son-in-law of Samuel Robson Walton. Penner owns 1,699,750 shares of Walmart, which is 0.02% of the company's outstanding shares.

The number of shares held by Jim, Alice, and Rob Walton might seem low, considering the Walton family owns over half of Walmart. These are only the shares that each sibling has sole ownership of. They also share control of the holdings of Walton Enterprises and the Walton Family Holdings Trust.

Including those holdings, Jim Walton has sole or shared control of 3,638,184,467 Walmart shares. Alice Walton has sole or shared control of 3,626,908,835 Walmart shares, and Rob Walton has sole or shared control of 3,613,692,652 Walmart shares.

Shareholder

An individual or entity that owns a portion of a company's stock, entitling them to a share of its profits and assets.

Institutional investors

Here are Walmart's largest institutional shareholders:

Walton Enterprises is a holding company founded by Sam Walton in 1953. It owns 3,002,673,393 shares of Walmart, which is 37.53% of the company's outstanding shares.
The Walton Family Holdings Trust is a trust established by Sam Walton in 1989. It owns 581,930,458 shares of Walmart, which is 7.27% of the company's outstanding shares.
The Vanguard Group is an investment management company known for its low-cost mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It owns 412,539,774 shares of Walmart, which is 5.16% of the company's outstanding shares.
BlackRock (BLK -0.41%) is the largest investment management company in the world. It owns 336,615,874 shares of Walmart, which is 4.20% of the company's outstanding shares.
State Street Corp. (STT +1.23%) is an investment management company and custodian bank. It owns 184,300,475 shares of Walmart, which is 2.30% of the company's outstanding shares.

Combined, Walton Enterprises and the Walton Family Holdings Trust own about 45% of Walmart. The Big Three index fund managers round out the top five, as Walmart is a large holding in many of the major index funds. That's no surprise, since index funds are one of the easiest ways to invest money.

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Board of Directors

A group of elected individuals responsible for overseeing the activities of a company and representing shareholders.

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How to invest in Walmart

To invest in Walmart, log into your brokerage account and search for its ticker: WMT. Enter the number of shares you want to purchase and select a type of order (market, limit, etc.). When you're ready, submit the order.

Since Walmart is a publicly traded company, you can buy shares with just about any stock broker. Walmart is also a holding in quite a few mutual funds and ETFs. If you're looking for one that's heavily weighted toward Walmart, you could invest in a consumer staples ETF or a retail ETF. It all depends on whether you'd rather invest in stocks, ETFs, or mutual funds.

Walmart may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of family-owned businesses. But the Walton family has been the largest shareholder for decades, even as Walmart has gone from a few stores in Arkansas to one of the largest companies in the world.

FAQs

About the Author

Lyle Daly is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering information technology and cryptocurrency. Lyle has been a contributor at the financial services company since 2018. His work has been featured on USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, Fox Business, and Nasdaq. Before joining The Motley Fool, he wrote for financial brands including Intuit.

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JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Lyle Daly has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Chipotle Mexican Grill, JPMorgan Chase, Starbucks, and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends UnitedHealth Group and recommends the following options: short June 2025 $55 calls on Chipotle Mexican Grill. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.