Best Buy CEO Corie Barry's compensation fell more then 20% to $10.3M last year

Best Buy CEO Corie Barry's pay slid 22% to $10.3 million last year, amid nine straight quarters of declining sales that led to the company announcing a "restructuring initiative" in February. That reorganization included recent layoff announcements, including some members of its Geek Squad tech support team and home theater repair technicians.

Here's a breakdown of Barry's compensation.

Total compensation for the year ended Feb. 2, 2024: $10,353,509

Salary: $1,325,000

Non-equity incentive plan compensation: $1,972,101

Other compensation: $147,240

Options exercised: $330,456

Value realized on vesting shares: $6,578,712

Total return for fiscal 2023: -6.7%

Note: Best Buy said in its annual proxy statement that sales last year were not as strong as leaders hoped but that earnings measures came in closer to expectations. The results calculated to a 76% payout on the annual incentive goals for executives, an increase over the annual award from the prior year.

Barry's overall compensation decreased 22% from the $13.4 million she earned the prior year, mainly because of a decline in the value of long-term equity awards. Barry realized $6.9 million from previously issued stock options and restricted stock awards, down from $11.5 million in the previous fiscal year.

Best Buy's long-term incentive awards are based on total shareholder return relative to the S&P 500 index and a revenue measure. The total return of Best Buy's shares over the three-year period lagged the index, failing to meet the minimum standard for that metric. The company just met the minimum revenue requirement for those awards to earn executives a payout for the three-year performance period.

In the proxy and during earnings calls, Best Buy attributed the declining sales to several factors including inflation, increased spending on experiences, a stagnant housing market, and lower consumer electronics product demand. Best Buy's sales tend to do well when there are new product introductions in the consumer electronic space and the company said there hasn't been as much product innovation in the last several years.

Barry said earlier this year that she expects consumer electronic sales trends to start improving in the back half of this year.