Jim Walton

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Jim Walton is The youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton co-manages Walton Enterprises, which together with another family holding company controls about half of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based chain had more than 10,500 stores and reported revenue of $611.3 billion in the year to Jan. 31, 2023.

The majority of Walton’s fortune is derived from Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, according to its website. The shares are owned through the Walton Family Holdings Trust as well as the family’s closely held holding company, Walton Enterprises. Share information is based on the company’s 2023 proxy statement and subsequent filings.

The analysis credits him with almost 12% of the business, based on an assumption that co-founder Sam Walton split the shares he owned equally among his four children — Rob, Alice, Jim and John. The net worth calculation excludes 200,000 shares that Walton has pledged as security for a line of credit, according to the 2023 proxy statement.

He also owns a 44% stake in Arvest Bank, the largest bank in Arkansas, according to a December 2010 filing with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Arvest has a book value of about $1.8 billion, according to a Dec. 31, 2022 filing with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The valuation is based on the average price-to-book-value multiple of two publicly traded peers: Fifth Third Bancorp and UMB Financial.

Since 1992, Walton has collected more than $10 billion in stock sales and dividends, based on an analysis of Bloomberg data. The value of his cash investments is based on these proceeds, as well as taxes, market performance and family investments.

Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for the Walton family, declined to comment on the net worth calculation.

Biography

Education: University of Arkansas

Jim Walton is the youngest son of Sam Walton, who opened his first Walmart retail store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. At the time of his death 30 years later, Sam had turned Wal-Mart into the world’s largest retailer, with almost 2,000 stores and $44 billion in annual sales.

Jim Walton graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1971. He soon joined Walmart to handle real estate transactions. In the mid-1970s, he was put in charge of Walton Enterprises, the Walton family office, whose holdings included the Bank of Bentonville (since renamed Arvest Bank). Walton became Arvest’s chief executive officer and turned it into the largest bank in the state. Today it has $24 billion in assets.

The billionaire joined the Walmart board following the death of his brother John in 2005 and served until 2016. He owns Community Publishers, which operates newspapers in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

Milestones

• 1948 Jim Walton is born in Newport, Arkansas, to Sam and Helen Walton.
• 1971 Graduates from University of Arkansas-Fayetteville.
• 1971 Joins Walmart to work on real estate transactions.
• 1975 Put in charge of Walton Enterprises, the Walton family office.
• 1982 Bank of Bentonville renamed Arvest Bank. Walton becomes CEO.
• 1992 Father dies in Little Rock, Arkansas.
• 2005 Brother John dies in a plane crash.
• 2011 Sister Alice opens Crystal Bridges art museum.