Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has had its annual shareholder meeting, which is also coming at a time when many local Walmart employees are threatening the company with strikes. Just don’t bother telling that to Walmart shareholders. The board of directors just added a new $15 billion stock buyback plan replacement under its corporate governance in returning capital to shareholders.
Today’s new buyback program is a new $15 billion plan aimed at replacing the prior $15 billion buyback plan from 2011. Of the prior plan, the company had approximately $712 million remaining to be bought. These shares are retired and returned to unissued status after being purchased.
The long and short of the matter is that Walmart repurchased more than $14 billion in stock in just the past two years. The company’s market cap is more than $250 billion. Today’s increased buyback also follows the company raising its common stock dividend earlier this year, and the yield currently is about 2.5% for investors.
Another metric of what the $15 billion translates to is corporate profitability. The net income applicable for shareholders was $16.99 billion this past year and $15.69 billion in the prior year. If you tally it all up, about 50 cents of every dollar of net income applicable to shareholders is being allocated to stock buybacks.
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