US Markets

Former Wal-Mart chairman unloads $62 million in shares

Key Points
  • Former Wal-Mart Chairman S. Robson "Rob" Walton sold shares Wednesday and Thursday, netting proceeds of $62.3 million.
  • He is the son of founder Sam Walton and was company chairman from 1992 to 2015.
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A former key Wal-Mart executive and member of the founding Walton family has sold a chunk of his shares, netting a tidy $62.3 million in proceeds.

S. Robson "Rob" Walton, the eldest son of company founder Sam Walton, sold his shares in two installments Wednesday and Thursday, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The first sale was of 646,330 shares at a price of $80.2025, which brought in more than $51.8 million. The second was of 129,628 shares at a price of $80.4406, yielding $10.4 million. The stock is down about 2.1 percent since Wednesday.

Even after both sales, Rob Walton still had more than 106.3 million shares in the company, with a total value of nearly $8.4 billion. Forbes estimates his net worth at $37.9 billion. Walton was company chairman from 1992 to 2015 and is still a board member.

CNBC has reached out to Walton and Wal-Mart for comment.

Wal-Mart's stock has outpaced the broader market this year, up about 13 percent while the has gained 9.3 percent. However, the overall retail picture has been shaky, with the SPDR S&P Retail exchange-traded fund sliding 10.8 percent year to date.

Analysts remain fairly optimistic on the stock, with an average target price of $83.24 a share, representing a 6 percent gain from Monday's open, according to FactSet. Of total analyst coverage, 14 have buy ratings, 15 have hold and just two have a sell.

Wal-Mart shares fell about 0.7 percent in the first hour of trading Monday.

Second-quarter earnings of $1.08 a share topped analyst estimates by a penny, according to results posted earlier this month The company took in $123.36 billion in revenue against an estimate of $122.84 billion, while same-store sales for U.S. stores, excluding fuel, climbed 1.7 percent, matching expectations.

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