Walmart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. He opened the first Walmart on July 2nd, 1962. Walmart’s business model was not expected to work out and was frowned upon by retail experts. However, the success of offering lower prices than its competitors in the retail market and at the same time being very service oriented ultimately proved Sam Walton right. (read more)
By 1967, Walmart operated 24 stores and generated $12.7 million in sales. Walmart went public in 1970 selling its common stock for $16.50 a share. Trading of Walmart stock on the NYSE began on August 25th, 1972, under the ticker symbol “WMT”. At that time, Walmart possessed 51 stores and had a sales volume of $78 million, which represented a year-over-year increase of 77%. Earnings per share in 1972 amounted to $0.47.
Walmart continued to present excellent figures. Its 25th anniversary in 1987 was no exception to that rule. The company defied expectations of a slowing general growth and managed to increase its total sales by 41% compared to 1986, thus reaching $11.9 billion. In the meantime, Walmart’s stores reached the number of 1,029. Earnings per share increased by 37% year-over-year and rose to $1.59. Walmart stock price increased in tandem. In 1990, sales of Walmart were at $32.6 billion and the company had grown bigger than all its competitors in the United States. Walmart stock continued to be popular on Wall Street.
Acquiring businesses and setting up joint ventures in several countries, Walmart developed into a global brand in the retail sector. It was in 1997 when Walmart reached over $100 billion in sales and Walmart stock price peaked temporarily at $27 at the end of fiscal 1997 on January 31st. In fiscal 1999, sales of Walmart’s international division increased by 63% year-over-year and made up more than $12 billion. The following year, Walmart continued its global expansion and purchased the British supermarket chain ASDA. Net sales rocketed to $165 million, increasing by 20% compared to the previous year.
On January 2nd, 2003, Walmart stock price closed at $51.60. Walmart stock price remained almost stable during 2003 and closed at $52.30 on January 2nd, 2004. Reaching a temporary peak at $61.05 at the end of the trading day on March 4th, 2004, Walmart stock price value decreased by 13.02% within one year to reach $53.10 exactly one year later, but business development remained very positive. In fiscal 2005, net sales increased by 11.3% in comparison to 2004 and reached $285.2 billion. Walmart’s international activities diversified and incomes from operations abroad accounted for $10.3 billion.
Financial performance remained strong during the second half of the 2000s. Net sales and earnings per share increased steadily, the latter reaching $3.72 in 2010. By that year, Walmart counted no less than 8,400 stores and was operating in 15 countries all over the world. Walmart stock price closed at $53.93 on December 31st, 2010. A weaker start in 2011 was followed by stronger growth during the second half of that year. By January 3rd, 2012, Walmart stock price had risen to $60.33. However, this increase has been dwarfed by the development in recent years. On July 3rd, 2012, Walmart stock price closed at $70.75. Five years later, on July 3rd, 2017, Walmart’s stock was worth $75.36 by the end of the trading day. During the second half of 2017, Walmart stock price climbed even higher and closed at $96.55 on December 8th, an increase of more than 28% compared to July.
The lucrative dividend payments are an outstanding characteristic of Walmart’s share, which is part of the S&P 500. Not only has Walmart been paying an annual dividend every year since March 1974, but the company has also been increasing its dividend payments every year. The annual dividend for fiscal 2018 is set at $2.04.
Walmart has had 11 two for 1 stock splits since it IPO’d back in the 1970s. Anyone investing on day one would have seen huge stock price and dividend returns since then.