UPDATE 2-Wal-Mart touts changes, vision at annual meeting

(Adds executive comments)

By Nicole Maestri

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark., June 6 (Reuters) - From Wal-Mart under fire to Wal-Mart leading the world, the contrast between the company's shareholder meeting last year and Friday's annual meeting was stark.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) used its latest gathering of shareholders to congratulate itself for getting U.S. sales back on track, while indulging in nostalgia for its founder, Sam Walton, and touting its potential to be a leader in solving issues facing consumers worldwide.

"It is clear that today people look at Wal-Mart as a solution. And we want to be seen that way and we want to act that way," Chief Executive Officer Lee Scott told the crowd gathered in a 16,000-seat arena for the meeting.

That is a major change from a year ago, when the gathering took place as Wal-Mart faced a lagging share price, slowing U.S. sales growth, attacks by union-backed organizations for its pay and health benefits, and questions over Scott's leadership.

A year ago, when Wal-Mart Chairman Robson Walton got up to speak at the event, he had to take the time to publicly express his confidence in Scott.

This year, when he stood in front of company employees to speak, he talked about how his father, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, would have been proud of the work the retailer was doing.

"We will always be the kind of company that my dad wanted us to be, swimming upstream, doing things a little differently than everyone else," Walton said.

"When I look at Wal-Mart today I see the same company my dad saw 16 years ago, a company with its best days ahead," he said, referring to the day in 1992 when Sam Walton was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and addressed Wal-Mart employees publicly for one of the last times.

REJUVENATING SALES

Wal-Mart's annual meeting this year comes as the retailer's back-to-basics strategy is helping it post sales gains despite the weak U.S. economy. And its share price has risen in tandem with its improving results.

It is emphasizing its low prices at the same time U.S. shoppers are being squeezed by rising food and fuel costs, a deteriorating housing market and tighter access to credit.

Through Thursday, Wal-Mart shares had risen 26 percent this year.

Wal-Mart said on Thursday its May sales at U.S. stores open at least a year rose 3.9 percent, above Wall Street estimates for a 1.6 percent rise, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The company "handsomely" beat all sales estimates in May, Eduardo Castro-Wright, head of Wal-Mart's U.S. business, told the annual meeting.