NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 11:03 ET
Key points
- A Miami attorney’s account of how Walmart founder Sam Walton kept shares in family trusts is drawing fresh attention. 1
- Walmart shares were up about 0.4% at $112.21 in late morning trading; Benzinga said the stock is up about 24% so far in 2025. 1
- A separate market commentary argues Walmart has historically held up better than the broader market in downturns because shoppers trade down to low-priced essentials. 2
Financial commentators are revisiting how Walmart founder Sam Walton structured his family’s stake — and why some investors still pitch Walmart shares as a long-term defensive holding. 1
The renewed focus lands as Walmart’s stock trades around $112 and has climbed about 24% so far this year, according to Benzinga, amplifying the value of the family’s holdings. 1
Why it matters now: keeping shares inside family-controlled vehicles can help preserve voting control and reduce the risk of big ownership shifts that can come with divorces and inheritances, a theme highlighted in recent commentary carried by Yahoo Finance. 1
In a Dec. 28 Benzinga article that was also published by Yahoo Finance, Miami attorney Jose M. Ferrer said Walton’s approach centered on placing Walmart shares into a trust rather than holding them directly in his children’s names. 1
A trust is a legal arrangement that holds assets for beneficiaries under set rules, often making ownership less exposed to personal events such as divorce when the shares are not held outright. 1
Benzinga said Walton also used the family partnership Walton Enterprises and later the Walton Family Holdings Trust, keeping Walmart stock in family-controlled entities instead of treating it as marital property. 1
Ferrer contrasted the structure with the Vanderbilt family, which Benzinga said saw wealth thin over generations as ownership moved outside the family through divorces and inheritances. 1
Benzinga, citing Bloomberg Billionaires Index data, said the three surviving Walton children — Rob, Jim and Alice — are each worth more than $100 billion, while the broader group of heirs, including grandson Lukas, holds nearly $440 billion. 1
The stock itself is being marketed anew as a “sleep-at-night” retail name. A Motley Fool commentary republished by AOL Finance argued Walmart tends to outperform in recessions because consumers gravitate toward low prices for everyday items. 2
“If we’re referring to a company that historically overperforms during a market downturn, Walmart checks the box,” wrote Stefon Walters, a contributing stock market analyst at The Motley Fool. 2
Walters cited examples showing Walmart gained about 14% during a 2001 downturn window while the S&P 500 fell about 8%, rose about 8% during the 2007–2009 recession while the index dropped about 36%, and slipped less than 1% during the early-2020 crash while the S&P 500 fell about 20%. 2
He wrote that while Walmart has expanded into membership programs, advertising and e-commerce, its core remains its “brick-and-mortar” store network — physical stores — that makes it convenient for shoppers, including in rural areas. 2
Walters also pointed to competitive dynamics: Amazon may dominate e-commerce, he wrote, but it cannot match Walmart’s physical presence for convenience and access to staples. 2
Benzinga said Walmart’s rally this year has been helped by e-commerce turning profitable and expanded automation, and it pointed to Walmart’s partnership with OpenAI that the company said would eventually allow customers to complete purchases within ChatGPT. 1
For the Walton family, the latest spotlight underscores how the same holding structures built to protect control can also concentrate the gains when the stock rises. 1
