It’s safe to say no Walton or Dillard will go hungry, but 2015 has not been kind to the family fortunes of Arkansas’ retail giants.
Actually, the year started out spectacularly for the families that control Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville and Dillard’s Inc. of Little Rock.
Dillard’s stock, which famously dropped below $4 a share during the winter of 2009, had clawed its way back from near-death and then exploded to $125 by the time 2015 arrived. And the ascent continued, peaking above $142 for a brief moment in April.
Wal-Mart stock also hit its all-time high in 2015, closing a hair above $90 a week into the year and pushing the value of the Walton family’s combined stock holdings tantalizingly close to $150 billion.
But as the year winds to an end, both stocks have tumbled precipitously. The Dec. 2 closing price for Wal-Mart was $59.66, off by more than a third from its zenith, while Dillard’s stock closed at $73.75 — down more than 40 percent year to date and by very nearly half from its high point.
Well, as Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton said when the dust cleared on Black Monday in October 1987, “It’s only paper.”
The Waltons are in no danger of losing the top spot on Arkansas Business’ annual list of the state’s top stockholders, with $99 billion in just those stock holdings that they are required to disclose publicly under U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission regulations.
After breaking the $1 billion mark for the first time back in the spring, members of the Dillard family, No. 5 on the list, have stock worth a combined $560 million as of Dec. 2.
Get the List
| Top Stockholders in Arkansas list includes value of stock, companies in which they have major holdings, number of shares, etc. | Spreadsheet |
Dec. 2 closing prices were used to create the list. A total of 117 individuals and families are included on the list by virtue of owning at least $1 million in publicly disclosed stock. The top 10 spots are held by the same wealthy individuals and families as when the list was last compiled in November 2014, but Nos. 7-10 have changed positions.
The heirs of Don Tyson, No. 2 on the list, saw a second straight year of stellar growth in stock value, an additional $800 million since last fall after adding $1 billion the year before that. Meanwhile, the heirs to the Murphy oil and timber fortune, No. 4, had a second dismal year thanks to the plummeting stock value of their biggest holding, Murphy Oil Corp., as petroleum prices remained at historic lows.
The family of the late J.B. Hunt remained steady at No. 3 with a trucking fortune valued at $1.5 billion, off only slightly since the fall of 2014.
Rounding out the top 10:
• George G. Gleason II and his wife, Linda, retaining the No. 6 position but with a fortune in Bank of the Ozarks stock that has grown by roughly 40 percent each of the past two years to more than $307 million.
• Richard N. Massey, whom the SEC considers to be the owner of $203 million worth of stock in the fast-growing Bear State Financial by virtue of his position as managing member of Bear State Financial Holdings LLC, which recapitalized the old First Federal Bancshares of Arkansas. Massey also serves on the boards of Fidelity National Information Services Inc. and Fidelity National Financial Inc., which add $15 million to his personal total and moved him up one spot to No. 7.
• John W. Allison, who moved from No. 10 to No. 9 as the value of his stock in Home BancShares Inc. swelled by a third to almost $185 million and overtaking the publicly disclosed stock holdings in Texas-based Conn’s Inc. of Witt Stephens Jr. and his sister, Elizabeth Stephens Campbell.
The List
The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission requires public disclosure of stock held by officers, directors and any person or entity that owns at least 5 percent of the outstanding shares of any publicly traded company. The information included in Arkansas Business’ annual list is gleaned from corporate proxy statements and Forms 3, 4 and 5 filed with the SEC.
Unless otherwise noted, the shares are deemed by the SEC to be owned outright by the person or family listed. Exercisable options and restricted shares are generally not included.
The stockholders on the list can be presumed to have other investments, even in publicly traded companies, that aren’t made public and therefore aren’t included in the totals.