This is the next in our series on America’s worst CEOs. There will be an all-time winner later this year. These CEOs were chosen based on their major strategic missteps, as well as how the decisions they made affected shareholders, customers, and employees. Some of these CEOs are quite new to the public corporations they lead. Others have had their jobs for years.
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Brian Cornell of Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) is one of the worst CEOs in America.
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Target’s quarterly results and stock performance have been horrible during his tenure.
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It’s a good thing for investors that they won’t have Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) CEO Brian Cornell around anymore. It has led the retailer through a ruinous period. He accepted the position in 2014. Target’s board showed remarkably poor judgment and kept Cornell as chairman of the executive board. In a second shocking development, the board named Michael Fiddelke, current chief operating officer, as the new CEO effective February 1, 2026. When Cornell ruined Target, Fiddelke helped him. When the board announced the decision, Neil Saunders of GlobalData commented: “The biggest mistake is actually keeping Brian Cornell on the board and making him chairman. It’s just ridiculous. You’re rewarding failure, and everyone at Target knows it.”
Target stock performance has been horrible. In the last five years, it is down 49% while the market is up 88%. Last year, it was down 30% while the market was up 15%. So far this year, the numbers are more or less the same. For comparison, shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) are up 118% over the past five years and Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) are up 135%.
Target has been dogged quarter after quarter by poor earnings. In the most recently reported quarter, net sales fell 1.5% to $25.3 billion. Earnings declined 18.2% to $1.52 per share. During the first three quarters of the year, the figures were equally poor. Revenue fell 1.7% to $74.3 billion and earnings fell 9.6% to $5.85 per share.
According to Yahoo Finance, of 38 analysts who follow Target, 28 rate it a Sell or Hold. Their average price target is $96.52, just above the current price of $90.62. As Morningstar noted, “While the 2026 leadership transition from CEO Brian Cornell (after 11 years at the helm) to COO Michael Fiddelke (a 20-year veteran of the business) could spur change, we’re skeptical it will be significant enough to regain lost market share or materially change Target’s competitive position given its long history at the retailer.”