Wal-Mart is known as one of the world’s leading discount retail chains. Much of its profits and success depends on its stock prices. This paper will examine three different scenarios in relation to the organizations initiative to repurchase its own stock in the market in order to retire it. There are three potential outcomes that the organization can encounter including: 1) the stock price goes down because the balance between debt and equity is distributed thus making interest rates on new debt rise. 2) The stock price is not affected because of the benefit of less shareholders is equal to the negative factor of not having the liquidity. 3) The stock price goes up because there are fewer shares outstanding. To begin with, the paper will examine the history of Wal-Mart to gain a further understanding of where the organization came from and where it is heading in the future.
Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart in 1962 in Bentonville, Arkansas. It was one of the first of its kind- the discount retailer. Walton worked closely with his vendors to keep his prices competitive. Eventually, Walton was able to strike deals due to buying in bulk keeping his prices low. Walton then expanded his retail chain in the 1980’s to include warehouse buying by developing Sam’s Club. Since its initial opening in the 1960’s, Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club have gone global and expanded the discount chains overseas in areas such as Asia, Mexico, Canada, and South America. In 2008 there were over 590 Sam’s Club locations in the US and 100 internationally. In 2006, Wal-Mart had nearly 7000 locations worldwide (Wal-Mart, 2010).
Management’s Initiative Wal-Mart released their annual report for 2009 and they could not be more proud of the performance that Wal-Mart has done for the fiscal year. The Wal-Mart teams from around the globe have challenged a difficult economy in the retail market, yet Wal-Mart reported net sales of more than $405 billion for the year with the
References: Wal-Mart. (2010). Walmartstores.com: History Timeline. Retrieved from http://walmartstores.com/AboutUs/7603.aspx Wal-Mart (2009) Annual Report. Retrieved on July 29, 2010 from http://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDFArchive/wmt2009.pdf