News in brief

Walton trust's stock

sale yields $63.3M

The children of Walmart Inc. founder Sam Walton sold more than 760,000 shares of stock held in a trust late last week and early this week.

According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the shares sold for $63,337,615 and were part of the Walton Family Holdings Trust. The trust was established about three years ago by Walton Enterprises LLC, a holding company owned by Walton's heirs.

The sale from the trust, on Friday and Monday, include 760,377 shares, listed in two separate transactions indicating multiple trades in specific price ranges.

The Walton Family Trust has 75,137,905 shares remaining after the transaction, according to documents. Walton Enterprises LLC holds 1.42 billion shares, about half of all outstanding shares.

Walmart shares closed at $83.61, unchanged in trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares have traded as low as $73.13 and as high as $109.98 over the past year.

-- John Magsam

LR port's handling

of barges up sharply

Barge activity at the Port of Little Rock is up significantly through the first five months of 2018, according to year-over-year figures provided by the Little Rock Port Authority.

The Arkansas River port has worked 197 barges and handled 302,000 tons of cargo through May, an increase of 22 percent and 24 percent, respectively, compared with the same period in 2017, when the port worked 161 barges and handled 243,000 tons of cargo.

The port handled 57 barges and 87,000 tons of cargo in May, according to authority data.

A total of 5,010,298 tons of cargo was transported on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System through the first five months of 2018, including 1,129,822 tons last month, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

-- Noel Oman

State index reaches

record high, retreats

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 5.46 to close at 453.35 Wednesday. The index reached an all-time high of 454.36 during the trading day.

Total volume for the index was 21.4 million shares.

"Small-cap stocks outperformed with the Nasdaq composite and the Russell 2000 both setting highs as traders prepare for the annual Russell U.S. Index reconstitution on Friday's close which should generate outsized volumes," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business on 06/21/2018

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