If you had bought a share of Walmart stock in the IPO, here’s how many shares you would own now

It’s hard to imagine a world without it Walmart (NYSE:WMT). The company opened its first discount store in the early 1960s and held its initial public offering in October 1970.

If you were lucky and smart and bought just one share in the company’s early days as a public company, you would end up with a lot more as a result of later stock splits.

How many shares would you own exactly? Following stock split history and doing some multiplications will provide the answer.

Walmart has announced twelve stock splits since its IPO. Most were 2v1 splits, but the exception was the 3v1 split in February.

Every time a 2-for-1 split occurred, your number of shares doubled, and in February the number tripled. So your one share became 6,144 shares.

The unadjusted division price was $16.50. While the number of your shares increased, the price decreased by the same proportion. That means the $16.50 becomes a split-adjusted $0.0027 (well under a penny per share). The stock closed at $94.25 on December 13, delivering a handsome profit to long-term investors.

Plus, you would have received dividends for more than 50 years. Walmart’s first quarterly payout was in March 1974, and the board has increased it every year since. This makes the company the dividend king.

The quarterly payout was last increased in February. Walmart currently pays $0.2075 per quarter, more than 9% higher than last year’s split-adjusted figure of $0.19.

Walmart’s simple business plan of keeping costs down and passing the savings on to customers has resonated with shoppers. It has also proven to be very profitable and rewarding for shareholders. With its ultra-low daily prices, it’s difficult for competitors to undercut the company, and that should continue to prove worthwhile for patient shareholders.

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