Publix Stock: Can You Buy It, the $19.60 Share Price and Who Owns Publix

Publix still files reports with the SEC like a public company because it has hundreds of thousands of shareholders. Every figure below comes from those filings unless I say otherwise.

Publix stock at a glance

The 10-K says the valuation compares Publix's results with those of publicly traded grocers and retailers, so the price moves partly with the stock market even though Publix shares never trade on it.

Publix stock price history

Sources: Publix 10-K for fiscal 2025 for 2024 and 2025 prices; Publix quarterly results releases for the March 1, May 1 and August 1, 2026 changes. Percentage changes are my calculation.

From $15.10 at the start of 2024 to $19.60 today is a rise of about 30%, before dividends. From the $21.15 peak in late 2025, the price is down about 7%. Both are my calculations.

Publix normally announces a new price with its quarterly results. Its third-quarter 2026 results had not been filed with the SEC as of November 2, 2026, so check for an update in early November.

Can you buy Publix stock if you don't work there?

Not directly. The 10-K says Publix stock is offered only to current employees and non-employee directors, and there is no public market for it. There are three ways employees get shares:

1. Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). Current employees can buy shares at the board-set price. Directors have a similar plan of their own.
2. 401(k) Plan. Participants can hold Publix stock in their retirement accounts. For 2023 to 2025 the board approved a match of 50% of contributions up to 3% of pay, capped at $750 per employee.
3. Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Publix provides stock to eligible employees through this retirement plan.

All four plans bar selling shares for value without first offering them to Publix, and the 10-K says Publix "currently repurchases common stock subject to certain terms and conditions." Those buybacks are why the share count keeps falling: weighted average shares dropped from 3,320 million in 2023 to 3,245 million in 2025, per the 10-K.

If you do not work at Publix, the closest you can get is owning publicly traded grocers that the valuation is benchmarked against. None of them gives you a stake in Publix.

Publix dividends

Sources: Publix 10-K for 2024 and 2025; Publix dividend 8-K filings for 2026. The 2026 total is my sum of the four payments.

At $19.60 a share, the 2026 dividends work out to a yield of about 2.3% (my calculation).

Who owns Publix?

Source: Publix 2026 proxy statement, beneficial ownership as of February 3, 2026. Values and the remaining-holders line are my calculation from the 3.21 billion shares outstanding.

The two employee retirement plans alone hold about 29.6% of Publix (my calculation), and the 10-K calls Publix the largest employee-owned company in the U.S., with more than 260,000 employees at the end of 2025.

How big is Publix?

At $19.60 and 2025 earnings of $1.46 a share, Publix stock is priced at about 13.4 times earnings (my calculation).

Publix stores by state

Source: Publix 10-K for fiscal 2025.

Publix stock timeline

1. 1930

   Publix is founded in Florida

   Source: 10-K

2. 2024 (January)

   Share price at the start of the year

   $15.10Source: 10-K

3. 2024 (November)

   Biggest one-step rise in the period shown

   $18.05Source: 10-K

4. 2025 (August)

   Share price peaks

   $21.15Source: 10-K

5. 2026 (March)

   Price cut for a second straight quarter

   $19.65Source: Q4 2025 results

6. 2026 (May)

   Price rises as first-quarter sales reach $16.1 billion, up 2%

   $20.45Source: Q1 2026 results

7. 2026 (August)

   Current price set

   $19.60; about $62.9 billion for all shares (my calculation)Source: Q2 2026 results

How I checked this

I read Publix's 10-K for fiscal 2025, its 2026 proxy statement, its June 2026 10-Q, its quarterly results releases and its dividend 8-K filings directly on SEC EDGAR. Share prices, dividends, ownership, sales and store counts are taken from those filings. Market values, yields, percentage changes and the price-to-earnings ratio are my own arithmetic and are labeled as such.

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