Wal-Mart Shareholders' Dissent Against CEO Grows

Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) shareholders approved the election of all 14 director nominees at the company's annual meeting last week, but many again voted against Chief Executive Michael Duke and others as the company continued to face fallout from a Mexican bribery scandal.

Some 12.1% of shareholders voted against Duke, while 10.1% voted against S. Robson Walton, the son of the discount retailer's founder, according to results Wal-Mart made public on Monday. Christopher Williams, chairman of the audit committee, had 12.2% of votes cast against him.

Other directors got more than 90% support.

Duke and others were again targeted this year by large pension funds and activist groups, as they were in 2012 after allegations that Wal-Mart de Mexico bribed officials to expand quickly in Mexico last decade, and that Wal-Mart executives squelched an internal probe.

With a strong majority of votes cast in favor of each director, a boardroom shake-up at the world's largest retailer is unlikely. The Walton family also owns more than half of the company's shares, making re-election of its board a foregone conclusion.

For Wal-Mart's press release on the shareholder meeting voting results: