Walmart (WMT) Stock Buybacks: 40.8% of Shares Retired Since 2001

Name: Walmart (WMT) shares outstanding since 1999, split adjusted
Creator: Buyback Radar
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Shares outstanding, 1999 to todaysplit adjusted, from SEC filings

1999, 13,349,456,5622026-08-26, 7,933,746,241

A share bought in 1999

1.7× more of Walmart today, without buying another share. It was one of 13,349,456,562 shares then. It is one of 7,933,746,241 now.

Every filing we read28 fiscal years, split adjusted

Fiscal year	Date	Shares outstanding	Filing
1999	1999-03-31	13,349,456,562	10-K	cover page
2000	2000-03-31	13,362,102,513	10-K	cover page
2001	2001-03-31	13,411,388,958	10-K	cover page
2002	2002-03-31	13,353,677,628	10-K	cover page
2003	2003-03-31	13,157,080,695	10-K	cover page
2004	2004-02-29	12,890,131,698	10-K	cover page
2005	2005-03-21	12,699,006,285	10-K	cover page
2006	2006-03-20	12,501,700,575	10-K	cover page
2007	2007-03-16	12,373,354,023	10-K	cover page
2008	2008-03-21	11,863,374,171	10-K	cover page
2009	2009-01-31	11,775,000,000	10-K
2010	2010-03-26	11,277,022,542	10-K
2011	2011-03-21	10,473,595,560	10-K
2012	2012-03-22	10,213,615,404	10-K
2013	2013-03-22	9,877,330,098	10-K
2014	2014-03-18	9,687,526,203	10-K
2015	2015-03-30	9,678,187,956	10-K
2016	2016-03-28	9,433,005,312	10-K
2017	2017-03-29	9,099,027,237	10-K
2018	2018-03-28	8,852,090,454	10-K
2019	2019-03-26	8,609,052,690	10-K
2020	2020-03-18	8,496,831,660	10-K
2021	2021-03-17	8,451,215,085	10-K
2022	2022-03-16	8,255,338,887	10-K
2023	2023-03-15	8,086,967,799	10-K
2024	2024-03-13	8,058,048,674	10-K
2025	2025-03-12	8,016,849,444	10-K
2026	2026-03-11	7,972,402,501	10-K

Source: all 10-K filings of Walmart on EDGAR. Download this series as CSV. Licence CC BY 4.0, credit Buyback Radar.

Walmart buybacks, answered

Is Walmart buying back its stock?

Only enough to stand still. The share count is roughly flat over the last twelve months, at 7,933,746,241 as of August 26, 2026. Over five years the share count is down 4.7%.

How many shares has Walmart bought back?

Net of every new share it issued, Walmart has 5.48 billion fewer shares than at its 2001 peak. That is 40.8% of the company. Since fiscal 2008 alone it bought back about 4.22 billion shares, while the count fell by 3.93 billion. The difference went to employees and other new shares.

How many shares does Walmart have outstanding?

7,933,746,241 shares, as of August 26, 2026, from the cover page of its latest 10-Q. At the 2001 peak it had 13,411,388,958.

What do Walmart's buybacks mean for a shareholder?

Each share is a bigger slice of the company. Someone who held Walmart stock in 2001 owns 1.7 times as much of the business today without buying another share. Whether that was a good use of cash depends on the price paid.

How does Walmart compare with other cannibal stocks?

Walmart ranks No. 114 of 251 companies on Buyback Radar by share of the company retired since its peak. Close to it on the list: Rockwell Automation (41.6%), TE Connectivity (41.4%), Build-A-Bear Workshop (40.4%), Northrop Grumman (40.1%).

Every answer is computed from Walmart's own SEC filings and rebuilt every Monday. Latest count: 10-Q on EDGAR.