Updated April 2026 · SEC DEF 14A data
Brian Cornell
Chief Executive Officer at Target · Retail
Brian Cornell serves as Chief Executive Officer of Target. Total compensation: $21.8M. CEO compensation at U.S. public companies is disclosed via the SEC DEF 14A proxy statement, including base salary, stock and option awards, performance-tied incentives, and "other compensation" that captures perquisites and post-employment benefits.
Substantial compensation packages at this level are typical of senior executives at large public companies. The mix usually skews equity-heavy, with multi-year vesting schedules tying actual realized comp to forward performance. The CEOPay executive page surfaces the per-year compensation history (where multi-year disclosure exists), the breakdown by award type, and the per-company context for the role. Cross-executive comparisons within a single company are most useful for understanding internal pay structure.
Brian Cornell, Chief Executive Officer at Target, was reported with $21.8M in total compensation for fiscal year 2026, and $98.9M in cumulative SEC-disclosed total compensation across the 5 fiscal years on file. This is the bottom-line "Total" figure from the Summary Compensation Table in the company's SEC DEF 14A proxy statement, captured from the filing's machine-readable iXBRL data. The line-item split into salary, stock awards, options, and other components is disclosed inside the same proxy and is not reproduced or estimated on this page.
Total Compensation
Fiscal year 2026 · SEC-disclosed total
Component Breakdown
The salary / bonus / stock / option split is disclosed inside Target’s DEF 14A Summary Compensation Table. This dataset captures only the SEC-disclosed headline Total — the line-item breakdown is not reproduced or estimated here. View the source DEF 14A →
Brian Cornell Net Worth: $98.9M in SEC-Disclosed Pay
Brian Cornell has earned $98.9M in cumulative total compensation across the 5 fiscal years of disclosure on file (2022–2026) as Chief Executive Officer at Target. That figure — the sum of every Summary Compensation Table entry the company has filed under SEC Regulation S-K Item 402 — is a defensible floor for an estimated net worth conversation: it is firmly in the eight-figure range; actual net worth is typically higher once vested-and-held stock appreciation and outside investments are included, and is sometimes lower if a meaningful share of pay was sold near grant to cover taxes. Brian Cornell's actual net worth is not directly disclosed in SEC filings; it would require reconciling this cumulative pay with current beneficial ownership, prior open-market stock sales (reported on Form 4), exercised options, taxes paid, and personal investments outside the company.
Beneficial ownership — the actual share count Brian Cornell controls — is disclosed separately in the same DEF 14A in the “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management” table, with insider transactions reported on SEC Form 4 within two business days of any open-market trade. To estimate Brian Cornell’s current net worth from public filings alone, combine cumulative disclosed compensation above with current Target share count × share price, subtract option exercises and stock sales already reported on Form 4, then adjust for taxes (typically 35–50% of vested equity value at grant) and any disclosed personal investments.
What Brian Cornell's Pay Tells Us
Brian Cornell earns $21.8M as Chief Executive Officer at Target — eight-figure compensation that places them comfortably above the median S&P 500 named executive officer. Stock awards and long-term incentives typically account for most of the package, with annual cash incentives reflecting near-term operational performance.
The figure above is the single headline "Total" compensation number disclosed for the most recent fiscal year — the bottom-line total from Target's SEC DEF 14A Summary Compensation Table, captured from the filing's machine-readable iXBRL data. The line-item split into base salary, bonus, stock awards, option awards, non-equity incentive, pension change, and other compensation is published inside the same proxy statement; this page does not reproduce that breakdown and does not estimate it. To see the exact mix, open the source DEF 14A on SEC EDGAR (linked below).
Total Compensation History
| Fiscal Year | Total Compensation (SEC-disclosed) |
|---|---|
| 2026 | $21.8M |
| 2025 | $20.4M |
| 2024 | $19.2M |
| 2023 | $17.7M |
| 2022 | $19.8M |
Figures are the headline “Total” from each year’s SEC DEF 14A Summary Compensation Table. The line-item salary / bonus / stock / option split is disclosed in the source proxy and is not reproduced or estimated here.
Across the 5 fiscal years on file (2022–2026), total compensation has ranged from $17.7M to $21.8M — a $4.2M swing typically driven by equity-grant timing, performance-share-unit vesting, or pension-actuarial revisions rather than changes in base salary or annual cash bonus.
How These Numbers Are Reported
The compensation figure on this page is the headline “Total” from the SEC DEF 14A proxy statement that Target filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of its most recent annual shareholder meeting, captured from the filing’s machine-readable iXBRL data (tag ecd:PeoTotalCompAmt). The proxy is freely available on the SEC’s EDGAR system. Inside it, the Summary Compensation Table also reports the per-line-item split — salary, bonus, stock awards, option awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation, change in pension and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, and all other compensation. This page reproduces only the disclosed Total and does not break it into those line items or estimate them. To read the exact mix, open the source filing directly: Target DEF 14A.
Stock awards and option awards are reported at grant-date fair value under FASB ASC 718, which is an accounting estimate at the time of grant rather than realized pay. Realized pay — what the executive actually banked — appears in the separate "Option Exercises and Stock Vested" table inside the same DEF 14A. Both views matter: the grant-date number is what the board approved, the realized number is what actually flowed to the executive in a given year. Read the full methodology for inputs, weights, and how each line item is sourced.
Authoritative governance context: Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis publish the proxy-advisor frameworks most institutional shareholders use to evaluate pay alignment against company performance.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Brian Cornell earn?
Brian Cornell earned $21.8M in total compensation as Chief Executive Officer at Target in fiscal year 2026, as disclosed in the company's most recent SEC DEF 14A proxy statement. Brian Cornell earns $21.8M as Chief Executive Officer at Target — eight-figure compensation that places them comfortably above the median S&P 500 named executive officer. Stock awards and long-term incentives typically account for most of the package, with annual cash incentives reflecting near-term operational performance.
What is Brian Cornell's pay package made of?
Brian Cornell's reported total of $21.8M is the single headline "Total" figure from the Summary Compensation Table. The figure above is the single headline "Total" compensation number disclosed for the most recent fiscal year — the bottom-line total from Target's SEC DEF 14A Summary Compensation Table, captured from the filing's machine-readable iXBRL data. The line-item split into base salary, bonus, stock awards, option awards, non-equity incentive, pension change, and other compensation is published inside the same proxy statement; this page does not reproduce that breakdown and does not estimate it. To see the exact mix, open the source DEF 14A on SEC EDGAR (linked below).
What is Brian Cornell's net worth?
Brian Cornell has earned $98.9M in cumulative total compensation across the 5 fiscal years of disclosure on file (2022–2026) as Chief Executive Officer at Target. That figure — the sum of every Summary Compensation Table entry the company has filed under SEC Regulation S-K Item 402 — is a defensible floor for an estimated net worth conversation: it is firmly in the eight-figure range; actual net worth is typically higher once vested-and-held stock appreciation and outside investments are included, and is sometimes lower if a meaningful share of pay was sold near grant to cover taxes. Brian Cornell's actual net worth is not directly disclosed in SEC filings; it would require reconciling this cumulative pay with current beneficial ownership, prior open-market stock sales (reported on Form 4), exercised options, taxes paid, and personal investments outside the company.
Where does this compensation data come from?
Every figure on this page is sourced from the SEC DEF 14A proxy statement that Target filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of its most recent annual shareholder meeting. The Summary Compensation Table inside the filing is the authoritative document, available on the SEC EDGAR system at https://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml. Equity values follow FASB ASC 718 grant-date fair-value accounting; pension changes reflect the year-over-year actuarial revision required by Regulation S-K Item 402.
How has Brian Cornell's pay changed over time?
Across the 5 fiscal years on file (2022–2026), total compensation has ranged from $17.7M to $21.8M — a $4.2M swing typically driven by equity-grant timing, performance-share-unit vesting, or pension-actuarial revisions rather than changes in base salary or annual cash bonus.
How is Brian Cornell's compensation reported to the SEC?
Brian Cornell's total compensation is the headline "Total" figure from the Summary Compensation Table in Target's SEC DEF 14A proxy statement, captured from the filing's machine-readable iXBRL data (tag ecd:PeoTotalCompAmt). Equity awards inside that total are reported at FASB ASC 718 grant-date fair value rather than realized pay. We report the disclosed total only and never estimate the line-item split.
Related Executives at Target & Peers
Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, DEF 14A proxy filings via EDGAR. Public domain.
Last updated 2026-04-06 · 5 fiscal years of compensation history on file.