The tumble taken by shares in a Houston-area appliance retailer is the only reason for a new name among the 10 largest stockholders in Arkansas.
A year ago, the heirs of W. R. “Witt” Stephens Sr. were among the top 10 because their shares in Conn’s Inc. of The Woodlands, Texas, were valued at more than $140 million. But Conn’s share price, which flirted with $80 back in 2013, has slumped from more than $25 a year ago to $10.80 on Dec. 2, the date used for ranking this week’s list of the top stockholders in the state. (Conn’s stock rebounded to the $13 range last week.)
As a result, the Witt Stephens family dropped to No. 14, and Gary George of Springdale, chairman of George’s Inc. and a director of J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell, moved into the No. 10 spot. The Securities & Exchange Commission, to which officers, directors and large shareholders must disclose the number of shares owned, considers George to be the beneficial owner of more than 1.4 million shares of J.B. Hunt stock worth nearly $140 million. More than a third of those shares are held by CL George & Sons Ltd. rather than by Gary George personally.
Shares in the trucking company are worth considerably more this month than they were in December 2015. The Dec. 2 closing price was $96.33, up 24 percent in a year. Three trading days later, on Wednesday, it cracked $100 for the first time in intraday trading, and ticker symbol JBHT opened at $100.25 on Thursday.
J.B. Hunt stock is the foundation of two other top-10 stock fortunes on this week’s list: the heirs of founder J.B. Hunt (widow, Johnelle, and son, Bryan), No. 3 with stock valued at almost $1.9 billion, and director Wayne Garrison, who moved from No. 8 last year to No. 7 with stock worth $223.6 million.
The top stockholders, as always, are the heirs of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton. Their disclosed stock in the Bentonville retailer was valued at $112.7 billion as of Dec. 2, and they had another billion dollars worth of combined stock value in three other companies: First Solar Inc., Hyatt Hotels Corp. and Enphase Energy Inc.
A distant second — but richer than ever on paper — are the heirs of Don Tyson, whose class A and B shares in meat and poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc. were worth $4.15 billion.
Year-over-year improvement in the price of both Murphy Oil Corp. and Murphy USA Inc. helped the Murphy family of El Dorado maintain its spot at No. 4. Members of the family are also major stockholders in the Murphy Oil spinoff Deltic Timber Corp. and of BancorpSouth Inc. of Tupelo, Mississippi.
Despite continuing revenue challenges — see Holidays Should Buoy Dillard’s Slow Sales — Dillard’s Inc. stock was slightly higher on Dec. 2 than it had been a year ago. That kept the heirs of founder William Dillard at No. 5 on the list. (CEO William Dillard II is a director of Acxiom Corp. and Barnes & Noble Inc., so his holdings in those companies are also included in the family total.)
Bankers George Gleason, Rick Massey and Johnny Allison round out the top 10 at Nos. 6, 8 and 9 respectively. The stock in Bear State Financial Inc. attributed to Massey, its chairman, includes nearly 19 million shares owned by Bear State Financial Holdings LLC, of which Massey is the managing member. Gleason’s total includes shares held by his wife, Linda, a director of Bank of the Ozarks Inc., where George Gleason is chairman and CEO.
Allison is chairman of Home BancShares Inc. of Conway, the parent company of Centennial Bank.
The List
The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission requires public disclosure of stock held by officers, directors and any person or entity that owns at least 5 percent of the outstanding shares of any publicly traded company. The information included in Arkansas Business’ annual list is gleaned from corporate proxy statements and Forms 3, 4 and 5 filed with the SEC.
Unless otherwise noted, the shares are deemed by the SEC to be owned outright by the person or family listed. Exercisable options and restricted shares are generally not included.
The stockholders on the list can be presumed to have other investments, even in publicly traded companies, that aren’t made public and therefore aren’t included in the totals.