Walmart is making its share price more affordable just as it gives its store managers pay raises and annual stock grants of up to $20,000.
The company announced a three-for-one stock split this week that will bring the price of its shares down starting in late February and make them more affordable for employees (or associates, as the company calls them). The world’s largest private employer has split its stock 11 times since it went public in 1970, but this is its first since 1999.
Walmart is the most recent of a group of Fortune 50 companies, including Apple and Tesla, to split their stock in recent years. Although a stock split can often be expensive and tedious owing to regulations, the maneuver can also help to reinvigorate a stock, especially by bringing in more liquidity from smaller investors. In other words, Walmart wants you, yes, you, the day trader who’s been priced out of the stock, to get in on the action.
The company’s president and CEO, Doug McMillon, said in a statement that this is exactly why it split the stock, so that more employees could buy full shares, in line with the vision of the company’s founder.
“Sam Walton believed it was important to keep our share price in a range where purchasing whole shares, rather than fractions, was accessible to all of our associates,” McMillon said.
Through the company’s stock purchase plan, eligible employees can buy Walmart stock with payroll deductions that the company will match at 15% for the first $1,800 per year, it said in a press release.
“Given our growth and our plans for the future, we felt it was a good time to split the stock and encourage our associates to participate in the years to come. As Sam said, ‘We’re all in this together. That’s the secret,’” McMillon added.
Although the number of outstanding shares will triple as a result of the split, it won’t alter the company’s market capitalization. Walmart shareholders will receive two additional shares for every share they currently own, the company said in a press release.
Owing in part to the stock market’s overall stellar performance in 2023 and better than expected December job numbers, retail investor activity has increased. Gen Z investors, who often have less money to trade, could be attracted to Walmart’s stock following the split. According to an August survey from Bankrate nine out of 10 young investors said they are actively trading, in part to offset inflation.
When reached for comment, a Walmart spokesperson directed Fortune to the company’s public stock split announcement.
Walmart’s stock has jumped about 15% over the past 52 weeks as the company has bolstered its online shopping services and announced higher pay for employees. On Wednesday, Walmart said in a staff memo that it would be opening 12 stores and converting a smaller location to a Supercenter, a sign of impending growth, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The company’s stock was up just under half-a-percent on Wednesday following news of the stock split.
In a bid to attract and retain employees in a competitive labor market, Walmart has increased starting wages for workers and added new perks for managers. Earlier this week the company announced five-digit annual stock grants for store managers, a benefit often given only to higher-level employees. Combined with a higher average salary of $128,000 and the ability to earn double their pay with bonuses, high-performing store managers could earn up to $400,000 per year.
Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner said in a LinkedInvideo that being a store manager is much more complicated than it has been in past years.
“A Walmart store manager is running a multimillion-dollar business and managing hundreds of people. It’s a far more complex job today than when I managed a store,” Furner said.
