The Annual Shareholders’ Meeting for Wal-Mart, Like Its Stock, Is Buoyant

The company’s chief executive and chairman addressed concerns about investigations into allegations of bribery involving Wal-Mart’s subsidiary in Mexico, and they emphasized the importance of integrity to a crowd of 14,000 employees and investors at the Bud Walton Arena here.

But those topics consumed a small fraction of the four-hour meeting that included marquee entertainers — Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Lionel Richie and Celine Dion — as well as samba dancers, a violinist, homages to the founder Sam Walton and cheery updates from executives about the company’s performance.

Even on a day when the dismal United States jobs report sent stock indexes down, Wal-Mart’s stock price remained close to a 12-year high as the company built on a turnaround in its sales in the United States and its continuing international growth. Shares of Wal-Mart closed at $65.55 on Friday, down just 0.4 percent.

All existing board members were re-elected, despite some prominent shareholder opposition, and a new one, Marissa A. Mayer, vice president of local and maps for Google, was elected. Shareholders’ proposals that had garnered some support from institutional investors, requiring more disclosure on compensation and political contributions, were defeated, as was a proposal that had drawn little support, regarding adding directors with health care experience to the board.

None of those outcomes had been in doubt because the founding Walton family owns almost half of the shares in Wal-Mart Stores. Thus, any company-supported initiative or director is virtually guaranteed approval. The strength of the opposition will become known when vote tallies are made public on Monday.

“The tone was really upbeat — not surprising considering recent trends and the stock price,” said David Strasser, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott. A bigger emphasis on the bribery allegations would have been surprising, he said. “This is as much a pep rally as anything else, and they don’t want to hurt that.”

The chairman, S. Robson Walton, known as Rob, said Wal-Mart was taking the bribery allegations “very seriously.” The board committee looking into them was “using every resource necessary to ensure a thorough and comprehensive inquiry, and has instructed the independent investigators to go where the facts lead them,” he said. He also emphasized the independent status of several board members.

Michael T. Duke, the chief executive, said that integrity was among the company’s most important values.

“We’ve all heard the recent allegations about the company,” he said. “Let me be clear: Wal-Mart is committed to compliance and integrity everywhere we operate.”

The Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the bribery allegations, which involve the company’s expansion in Mexico. In April, The New York Times reported that executives in Arkansas received credible evidence about a bribery scheme, in 2005 and 2006, and elected to shut an internal investigation. Mr. Duke and a board member, H. Lee Scott, a former chief executive, both knew of the bribery issue, The Times reported.

The meeting here on Friday was a mix of Grammy concert, cabaret show and earnest segments celebrating Wal-Mart’s values and history.

Mr. Timberlake was the lively host, joking with the crowd about the early start time. “7:20? 7:20! All right. That’s how we roll at Wal-Mart,” he said, to cheers from the audience.

There was a musical number devoted to the delight of working for Wal-Mart, with a Broadway actress singing “as associates, there is nothing we can’t achieve” as dancers swirled behind her (an associate is a Wal-Mart employee).

And there were multiple homages to Sam Walton as the company’s 50th-anniversary year began.

On a set designed to look like the Bentonville street where Mr. Walton opened his first five-and-dime, his children Rob, Alice and Jim Walton reminisced about the early days of the business. Ms. Walton recalled that her father had her dust the china at the original Wal-Mart, and “Dad even paid me in china horses, usually chipped.”

The siblings, all billionaires now, discussed how their father had them fashion Hula Hoops out of plastic pipe to sell when the company sold out of standard Hula Hoops too quickly.

Still, there were occasional hints of discontentment. Rob Walton warned at one point that “we may be joined today by some folks who want to interrupt our meeting.” Security was quite intense, and there were no apparent interruptions by protesters.

And when an employee and shareholder, Jackie Goebel, presented a proposal that would require more disclosure about executive compensation, several of her remarks — particularly on stores’ understaffing and employee schedule changes — got big cheers from the crowd, which included 5,000 employees.

“We have all felt the pain, the scandal and the dishonor that this has brought to our company,” Ms. Goebel said, referring to the Mexican bribery inquiries.

At a session with analysts later on Friday, executives fielded several questions about the company’s internal investigation into possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribing foreign officials.

Budd Bugatch, an analyst at Raymond James, asked what executives thought the effect on the company’s reputation was.

“We will be a better company because of this,” Mr. Duke responded.

In a regulatory filing on Friday, Wal-Mart said it was the subject of several lawsuits because of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act issues raised in The New York Times article. A securities lawsuit filed in Tennessee by a pension plan there says that Wal-Mart’s behavior affected the stock price. And 11 derivative lawsuits have been filed. Wal-Mart says it does not expect a material effect on its financial condition or results of operations because of the suits.