It’s a good week to be a Walton. The trio of siblings behind the Walmart empire have all joined the 12-figure fortune club, thanks to a healthy boost to the retailers’ stock price.
Rob, Jim and Alice are the three children of Sam Walton, who founded the company and sits at the top of the Fortune 500 – a ranking it has held for more than a decade.
Founded in 1945, Walmart is the world’s largest retailer and is half-owned by two family holding companies.
Alice, 74 years old, co-leads one of these two organizations – Walton Enterprises – contributing to her net worth of $101 billion.
A centi-billionaire, Alice is now the richest woman in the world and ranks number 18 on the Bloomberg Billionaires List.
However, she is not the first woman to ever achieve the title of centi-billionaire.
This summer, L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers was valued at $101 billion, but her fortune has since fallen to $88.2 billion.
Conversely, Alice’s fortune has grown by $30.8 billion this year alone.
Alice isn’t the only Walton on the Billionaires Index either. Her siblings Jim, aged 76, and Rob, aged 79, occupy numbers 16 and 17 respectively.
Jim was the first of the trio to break into the $100 billion club when his fortune rose to $101 billion in the second week of September. At the time of writing, his fortune was estimated at $104 billion.
Rob also joined the centi-billionaire group that week and now has a net worth of $102 billion.
The siblings now join an exclusive club of 18 people worth more than $100 billion. The pack is led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg.
While Alice leads the way as the richest woman on the list, a handful of other heirs are listed further down. Apart from Bettencourt Meyers, Julia Flesher Koch and her family are valued at $76.8 billion.
Flesher Koch is the widow of David Koch, the former co-owner of multinational conglomerate Koch.
Elsewhere on the list are Melinda French Gates, the ex-wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and MacKenzie Scott, who was previously married to Jeff Bezos.
Walmart’s growth
Across the US economy, retail has been turbulent, disrupting supply chains and putting pressure on consumers.
However, Walmart has delivered results for shareholders and gained greater market share.
In its Q2 earnings call in August, the group reported revenue of $169.3 billion, up 4.8% compared to the same period the year before.
“We continue to gain market share, including in general merchandise, and transaction counts and unit volume increased in all markets,” CEO Douglas McMillon said on the earnings call. “Nutrition remains strong and it is encouraging to see improvements in overall merchandise. And our U.S. health and wellness businesses in Walmart and Sam’s Club, primarily driven by GLP-1 drug sales, are contributing to our strong comp sales.
“To date, we have not experienced a weaker consumer overall.”
The optimistic outlook has led to a boost for shareholders – and thus for the Walton family’s fortunes. At the time of writing, Walmart shares were at $81, up 53% year to date.
Conversely, Bettencourt Meyers’ assets are falling, with L’Oréal’s share price down 11% this year to $395.
L’Oréal’s balance sheet is not unhealthy, but it is plagued by lagging sales in certain regions.
In July, L’Oreal reported sales of €22.12 billion (about $25 billion), up 7.5%.
Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L’Oréal, said: “Our continued strong momentum in emerging markets, Europe and North America allowed us to more than offset the depressed beauty market in mainland China and unfavorable comparatives in travel retail. “
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com
