Walmart Board Approves New $15 Billion Share Repurchase Program

Walmart Board Approves New $15 Billion Share Repurchase Program

BENTONVILLE, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYS: WMT) announced at its Annual Meeting of Shareholders that its Board of Directors approved a new program authorizing the company to repurchase $15 billion of its shares, effective June 6, 2013. This program replaces the previous $15 billion program announced on June 3, 2011 (2011 Authorization). As of June 6, the company had approximately $712 million remaining on the 2011 Authorization. Under the share repurchase program, repurchased shares are constructively retired and returned to unissued status.

"Our strong cash flow enabled the company to invest in growth and repurchase over $14 billion of our stock during the last two years," said Charles Holley, Walmart executive vice president and chief financial officer. "We're pleased to continue our share repurchase program with this new $15 billion authorization."

In addition to share repurchases, the company continues to return value to shareholders through dividends. Earlier this year, Walmart increased the fiscal 2013 dividend per share by approximately 18 percent to $1.88 for fiscal 2014, up from $1.59 in fiscal 2013.

"We're proud of our long history of returning value to shareholders through the combination of dividends and share repurchases. Together, we returned $6.2 billion to shareholders year-to-date during fiscal 2014, including the recent payment of our second quarter dividend," Holley added. "And during the last 10 years, Walmart returned nearly $100 billion to shareholders. We also increased our dividend every year since March of 1974, when we began paying a dividend of 5 cents per share."

About Walmart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYS: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better - anytime and anywhere -- in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, more than 245 million customers and members visit our 10,857 stores under 69 banners in 27 countries and ecommerce websites in 10 countries. With fiscal year 2013 sales of approximately $466 billion, Walmart employs more than 2 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com, and on Facebook at http://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart. Online merchandise sales are available at http://www.walmart.com and http://www.samsclub.com.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
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