Wal-Mart investors await new strategies

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/business/investing/la-fi-walmart29may29,1,6172230.story?coll=la-headlines-business-invest&ctrack=1&cset=true

Wal-Mart investors await new strategies

Wal-Mart investors await new strategies
Management of the retail chain will unveil its plans this week.
From the Associated Press
May 29, 2007

Thousands of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. investors and employees will pack a sports arena Friday for the retailer's annual shareholder meeting, a mix of music celebrity flash and serious business with a pinch of criticism from dissident shareholders.

Investors will be closely watching the presentations by Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr. and top executives for word on growth strategies after the company warned that second-quarter profit may fall short of Wall Street's expectations.

The global retailer typically packs the 18,000-seat Bud Walton Arena at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, about 30 miles south of Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

Shareholders including religious orders, unions and a free-market think tank are offering 11 proposals. Such measures typically fail to win majority support. This year's proposals include calls for Wal-Mart to report on the gap in pay and benefits between its top executives and lowest paid workers, on the percentage of stock awards to employees based on gender and race, on the need for universal healthcare plans and on the grounds for its charitable giving.

It is always a well-choreographed event with a sprinkle of big-name performers to serenade the audience. Recent years included appearances by Garth Brooks, Jon Bon Jovi and Jessica Simpson.

At the shareholder meeting and at an analyst conference that immediately follows, analysts will be listening for any news on Wal-Mart's growth strategies for its core U.S. namesake stores, whose sales dwarf its faster-growing international business and its Sam's Club membership warehouse chain.

FULL story at link.