A handful of CEOs led the pack last year for compensation, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Journal on Tuesday reported Broadcom’s Hock Tan, Palo Alto Networks’ Nikesh Arora, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Charter Communications’ Christopher Winfrey and Fair Isaac’s (FICO) Will Lansing were among the top-five CEOS of S&P 500 companies when it came to pay in 2023.
The Journal said its analysis looked at hundreds of S&P 500 companies and their CEOs overall, ranking 415 of them by the size of their reported 2023 total compensation of cash and equity awards.
CEO compensation rose year over year
The median amount S&P companies compensated their CEOs rose more than 8% year-over-year to $15.7 million in 2023, per the outlet’s analysis.
The S&P 500 itself has posted jumps of nearly 12% from the start of the year and over 26% over the past 12 months. Meanwhile, in the past year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite indices rose over 19% and 32%, respectively.
2023’s heftiest pay packages identified by The Journal
1. Hock Tan
Tan’s placement at No. 1 on The Journal’s list is due to Broadcom compensating him about $161.83 million in 2023. Only a small portion of that came in the form of cash, and the company tied a major portion of it to him sticking around as CEO and to stock performance, per the outlet. He reportedly received $60.6 million worth of compensation the year before that.
2. Nikesh Arora
Arora, who appeared in second-place with a reported equity-heavy $151.43 million pay package last year, has served as Palo Alto Networks’ chief executive for roughly six years. The cybersecurity company said Monday it has generated revenue of nearly $5.84 billion and net income of almost $2.22 billion for the first three quarters of its fiscal 2024 year.
3. Stephen Schwarzman
The Journal pegged Schwarzman’s 2023 compensation at $119.78 million. Blackstone manages over $1 trillion in assets and has a market capitalization hovering around $154.41 billion.
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4. Christopher Winfrey
Winfrey’s stint as the CEO at Charter Communications, which had some 101,100 full-time equivalent workers at the end of 2023, has run nearly 1.5 years so far. In 2023, stock and options with five-year vesting periods made up most of his $89.1 million compensation, according to The Journal. There were reportedly stipulations regarding stock performance too. The median that the company pays Charter employees was reportedly nearly $54,500.
5. Will Lansing
The roughly $66.35 million in total pay given to Winfrey in 2023 included $30 million with a five-year vesting period related to his continued leadership of the company, according to The Journal. FICO’s stock price has soared over 77% in the past year under his watch.
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