Walton Stock Regains 12-Digit Value; Hunt Family No. 2

(To see the list of the top shareholders in the state of Arkansas, click for a PDF.)

Always at the top of Arkansas Business' annual list of the state's top stockholders, the heirs of Sam Walton have moved up in one respect: For the first time since 2000, the family's shares of Wal-Mart stock are valued at more than $100 billion.

The list is ranked by the value of publicly disclosed stockholdings in excess of $1 million, based on closing prices as of Aug. 15. The data are gleaned from filings with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, which requires disclosure by officers, directors and any person or entity that owns at least 5 percent of the outstanding shares of any company.

The Walton family's 12-digit total – $101 billion, all of it in stock of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. – is two digits longer than their nearest competitors. And this year, No. 2 is the family of trucking magnate J.B. Hunt – specifically, his widow, Johnelle, and son, Bryan. Their 34 million shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services were worth $1.3 million on Aug. 15, though the share price had dropped about 5 percent by last week.

In October 2007, the last time this list was compiled, the Hunt family holdings were worth a mere $935 million, good enough only for fifth place on the list. But a 45 percent run-up in the price of J.B. Hunt Transport stock allowed the Hunt family to surpass the meat-producing family of Don Tyson and the heirs of financiers Witt and Jack Stephens.

The value of Tyson family shares in Tyson Foods Inc. dropped from $1.43 billion on last year's list to just under $1.2 billion primarily because of a reduction in holdings by more than 13 million shares. This was accomplished by first converting Class B shares – the controlling shares owned almost exclusively by the Tyson family – to Class A common stock.

The holdings of Witt Stephens' surviving children, Witt Jr. and Elizabeth Stephens Campbell, are combined in the list with those of Jack Stephens' son Warren A. Stephens, although the two sides of the family have undertaken a gradual separation of their fortunes.

[  ]