Acxiom stockholders suffer; Murphy family rises to No. 2

Arkansas Business, Nov 5, 2007 by John Henry

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THE ANNUAL LIST OF TOP stockholders is a reminder that Arkansas companies have brought impressive wealth to many.

But the past year was kinder to some than others. Take, for instance, the Acxiom Corp. stockholders who saw the value of their stock holdings sink as the deal to sell the company to private equity firms collapsed and the share value plummeted along with earnings over the past couple of quarters.

As of Oct. 19, the date selected for measuring the value of Arkansas stockholdings, Charles Morgan's Acxiom stock was worth $40.3 million, down from more than $81.2 million in November 2006. That dropped him out of the top 10 stockholders, to No. 15. Morgan did sell some of his stock, but the biggest factor was the decline in the stock price to $13.61, compared with $25.24 last year. (And it dropped below $13 on Thursday.)

Several other Acxiom officers on last year's list dropped off completely this year.

On the flip side, the heirs of Charles Murphy, founder of Murphy Oil Corp., rose to No. 2 on the list as the stock price of the company increased 52 percent. That puts the family wealth at more than $1.5 billion from holdings in Murphy Oil, Deltic Timber Corp. and BancorpSouth. The family includes Madison Murphy, Claiborne Deming, William Nolan, Robert Nolan, Christoph Keller and Caroline Theus.

Still reigning at the top is the family of Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. They too were affected by a decline in stock value, although none will have to miss a meal because of it.

But the Walton wealth dropped by more than $4 billion to $76.7 billion from $81 billion last year because the share price of Wal-Mart stock fell 5 percent.

Coming in at No. 3, barely behind the Murphy family, is the family of Don Tyson with holdings in Tyson Foods Inc. valued at $1.4 billion, a slight increase from the $l.3 billion of last year.

Based solely on what could be found in filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission, the holdings of the Witt and Jack Stephens family amount to just more than $1 billion, good enough for No. 4 on the list. While Jack's son Warren and his cousins, Witt Stephens Jr. and Elizabeth Stephens Campbell, have divided much of the family fortune, most of the publicly traded stock is still jointly held by SF Holding Corp.

No. 5, the family of the late J.B. Hunt, barely missed the billion-dollar mark, coming in with holdings valued at $935.2 million.

Most of those whose wealth was invested in trucking companies did not fare as well. J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. was one of the few whose stock rose in value over the past year. Most trucking firms have been hit hard with a slowdown in freight movement, and the list shows that.

After the top five, the numbers drop off rather dramatically.

No. 6 is Wayne Garrison, chairman of J.B. Hunt, whose holdings in that company were valued at just a smidgen under $200 million.

The William Dillard family, with stock in Dillard's Inc., Acxiom Corp. and Barnes & Noble Inc., ranks No. 7 on the list, with holdings valued at $142.5 million, down dramatically from $236 million late last year. Back then, Dillard's Inc. was trading over $35 a share, and it was above $40 as recently as May. It was $20.85 as of Oct. 19, although it had been back above $23 briefly last week.

Rounding out the top 10 were No. 8, the George Gleason family, whose Bank of the Ozarks has seen rapid growth, at $108.7 million; No. 9 Joe T. Ford, chairman of Alltel Inc., at $85 million; and No. 10 Robert Young III, chairman and former CEO of Arkansas Best Corp., at $65.6 million.

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Ford and his son, Alltel CEO Scott Ford, will likely be missing from the list next year, as the company will no longer be publicly traded after its sale to TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs, which is expected to close by the end of this month.

Which company has the most entries on the list? That would be J.B. Hunt, with 15 shareholders whose holdings are publicly reported. Relative newcomer Home Bancshares Inc. of Conway boasts 12 millionaire investors, while giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. shows only 11 if the Walton family is treated as a single entity.

The company with the fewest is ThermoEnergy Corp. of Little Rock, whose CEO, Dennis Cossey, has stock valued at nearly $2 million. Not bad for a company that for some 14 years never reported any income.

Two banking companies--Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff and First Federal Bancshares of Arkansas Inc. at Harrison--produced two each.

By John Henry

jhenry@abpg.com