Walmart (WMT) stock was lower today after its shareholders were urged to slash the voting power of the Walton family.
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Ahead of the retail giant’s annual meeting on June 4, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) said shareholders should vote in support of its proposal to introduce cumulative voting at the company.
Cumulative voting:
- allows shareholders to cast multiple votes for a single candidate by multiplying their shares by the number of directors to be elected.
- gives minority shareholders the power to concentrate their votes, potentially influencing board decisions and appointments.
The NLPC said that it recognized Walmart’s “current upswing especially compared to top competitors Target (TGT) and Amazon (AMZN), so the company’s current trajectory is not driving the purpose of this cumulative voting proposal. The concern is a governance system that, for more than fifty years since the company’s 1970 IPO, has reserved every meaningful question of board composition for one family.”
The NLPC said that members of the Walton family — descendants of founder Sam Walton — control approximately 44% of Walmart’s outstanding voting shares through Walton Enterprises LLC and the Walton Family Holdings Trust.
Change the Math
In December 2024, it said, the family extended voting authority over those holdings to eight grandchildren of the founder, “institutionalizing the near-majority block into the next generation.”
It argued that combined with the roughly 11% held by Vanguard, BlackRock (BLK), and State Street (STT) — which it said historically vote with management on most director-election and governance questions — “the practical voting outcome of every contested governance issue at Walmart is determined before non-aligned shareholders participate.”
It said that cumulative voting would “change the math.” The NLPC said: “Cumulative voting offers what the existing system has not delivered: a reform that does not threaten the Walton family’s continuity, does not impair the family’s ability to elect its preferred directors, and does not require any operational change. It restores the possibility that the more than 50% of Walmart shares held outside the family translate into something other than rounding error in the boardroom.”
Is WMT a Good Stock to Buy Now?
On TipRanks, WMT has a Strong Buy consensus based on 28 Buy and 2 Hold ratings. Its highest price target is $150. WMT stock’s consensus price target is $139, implying a 7.01% upside.
