Walmart, Inc is a multinational retail corporation that was founded in North America. They operate a chain of supercenters, grocery stores, and discount department stores in the US, with its headquarters being in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The founder of Walmart is the famous Sam Walton in 1962 and incorporated the company in 1969. While he is well known today for this billion-dollar company, he started from humble beginnings. Not only does this conglomerate own Walmarts in most American towns, but they also own and operate the members-only warehouse retailer Sam’s Club and various other successful companies.
Currently, there are 10,524 stores in 24 countries, while they operate under different names. In 1972, Walmart got listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became the largest company by revenue in 1989.
How It All Began
Sam Walton was born in 1918 in Oklahoma. After leaving the military in 1945, he moved to Newport, Arkansas, where he gained significant retail experience and eventually owned and operated a variety store. The success of his dime store inspired him to do something great and opened the first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962.
Sam’s competitors couldn’t understand Sam’s ideas on building a successful business based on low prices, but this plan exceeded everyone’s expectations, and Walmart went public in 1970. After Sam died in 1992, Walmart remains the most successful retail store in the industry.
Walmart CEO, Doug McMillon
Doug McMillon is the current CEO of Walmart since 2014. Walmart’s intention for the company is to make employees’ lives easier, and they are committed to increasing associate wages, education, and benefits. These benefits include a dollar-a-day college program for employees and expanding their parental leave policy. Walmart also launched Project Gigaton to combat climate change and lower its carbon footprint by working with suppliers and avoiding the 1 billion metric tons of emissions they expel.
Doug McMillon began at Walmart when he was just a teenager and spent his afternoons unloading trucks for a small hourly wage, and began to take on leadership roles in the business segment of the company. He has been in the Walmart family for 30 years. Between 2005 and 2009, he was CEO of Sam’s Club, and from 2009 to 2014, he was CEO of Walmart International.
McMillion did something controversial in September 2019. He declared that the company would stop selling ammunition that is used for military-style weapons and handguns. The mass shooting in their El Paso Walmart triggered the decision, and it opened a dialogue between consumers and retailers to address violent crimes.
Walmart Expands Delivery Services
Walmart is going to expand and commercialize its delivery platform to local stores. They announced Tuesday, August 24th, 2021, that its delivery drivers will raise the stakes and deliver to neighborhood businesses competing against Amazon and Target. This new venture also puts Walmart in direct competition with FedEx, US Postal Service, and UPS.
Walmart’s current same-day delivery services deliver items from 3,000 stores to 70% of the population. While they are still far behind Amazon, Walmart will take a large portion of the market share in the years to come.
Global Sustainability
Walmart has been striving to positively impact the environment with its supply chain collaborations for the last 15 years. They have expressed their desire to prioritize people and the environment by reducing waste emissions and put in the effort to restoring nature.
Walmart has committed to creating a regenerative company that prioritizes the environment and humanity in its business processes.
Their supply chain focus on climate, nature, waste, and people delivers measurable benefits for their business and communities. According to solar and wind groups, Walmart acquired more wind and installed more solar in 2019 than any other corporation in the US. In 2020, they diverted 81% of their waste from landfills and incineration internationally. They were also included on the Climate Disclosure Project’s ‘A List’ for climate action in 2019 and 2020.
Walmart has committed to several objectives, including:
Climate:
- By 2040, they want to have zero emissions in their own operations.
- By 2035, they will have reached 100% renewable energy.
- By 2030, collaborate with suppliers to eliminate one gigaton of greenhouse gas emissions from the global value chain.
Waste:
- By 2025, they will have achieved zero waste in their operations in the United States and Canada.
- By 2025, private-brand packaging will be 100% recyclable, reused, or industrially compostable.
Nature:
- Contribute to the protection, management, or restoration of at least 1 million square miles of ocean and 50 million acres of land by 2030 through the Walmart Foundation.
- By 2025, at least 20 commodities will be sourced more sustainably.
People:
- To enhance human dignity, make ethical recruitment a mainstream business practice by 2026.
“We want to play an important role in transforming the world’s supply chains to be regenerative. We face a growing crisis of climate change and nature loss, and we all need to take action with urgency. For 15 years, we have been partnering to do the work and continually raising our sustainability ambitions across climate action, nature, waste, and people. The commitments we’re making today not only aim to decarbonize Walmart’s global operations, they also put us on the path to becoming a regenerative company – one that works to restore, renew, and replenish in addition to preserving our planet; and encourages others to do the same.” – Doug McMillon, Walmart CEO
Walmart Takes Care of its Employees
Walmart announced this year it would be paying for full college tuition for its US workers and will include the cost for books. This announcement is an effort made by the company to attract and retain employees in a restricted job market.
Ten academic partners are involved in the program, ranging from the University of Arizona to Brandman University. To be eligible, participants must work part-time or full-time at Walmart.
Walmart and Sam’s Club employees who want to obtain a degree will no longer have to pay a $1 per day fee. Walmart started the program in 2018, and it now employs around 28,000 people. Approximately 1.5 million people work at Walmart. Eliminating the dollar-a-day investment, according to the company, reduces financial barriers to enrollment and expands access.
Walmart also announced more degree and certificate choices in business administration, supply chain management, and cybersecurity.
Walmart has a vested interest in seeing the initiative grow. Employees who have completed the program are double as likely to be promoted. They are also employed at a “much higher rate” than non-participants.
According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the retail industry had 974,000 job openings in May.
Walmart hiked wages for 425,000 US employees to at least $13 an hour earlier this year. Walmart’s minimum salary is $11 per hour, lower than their competitors.
Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) Latest Stock and Dividend News
As of August 25th, 2021, Walmart, Inc’s stock is trading at $148.96.
Walmart has been paying dividends for the past 48 years. The current dividend yield is 1.47%, and dividends get paid quarterly. Walmart’s dividend growth rate over ten years is 5.03%.
Walmart is considered a Dividend Aristocrat. They are well-known for their strong brand and domination in the business and their long dividend history.
The Dividend Aristocrats are 65 S&P 500 companies that have grown their dividends for at least 25 years. Investors consider dividend Aristocrats as among the greatest dividend stocks. They are believed to be the best dividend-paying stocks to buy and hold for the long run.
Financial Report – FY22 Q2 Highlights
Walmart recently released their fiscal year 2022 second-quarter results. Here are some of the highlights:
- Total revenue increased by 2.4% to $141.0 billion, despite a loss of $8.9 billion due to divestitures. Total revenue would have climbed 0.6% to $138.6 billion if currency were not factored in.
- Operating income in the United States climbed by 20.4%. The adjusted operating income2 increased by 12.0%.
- Over two years, eCommerce sales in the United States increased by 6% and 103%, respectively.
- Strong growth in the advertising industry worldwide, including nearly doubling sales at Walmart in the United States over the previous year.
- Walmart International’s net sales were $23.0 billion, a fall of $4.1 billion, or 15.2%, due to divestitures that cost $8.9 billion. Net sales increased by $2.4 billion as a result of changes in foreign exchange rates.
- Walmart US gained 20 basis points while the consolidated gross profit rate fell 15 basis points. Operating expenses as a proportion of net sales decreased 81 basis points, while adjusted operating expenses fell 47 basis points.
- With strength across the board, consolidated operating income increased by 21.4% to $7.4 billion. The adjusted operating income as a proportion of net sales climbed 50 basis points, while the consolidated operating income as a percentage of net sales grew 83 basis points.