Target's reputation falls in a year marked by tariffs and DEI controversy
Caliber, a stakeholder intelligence platform that helps organizations build and protect trust, released its annual U.S. Fortune 30 reputation ranking, with Costco, The Home Depot, and UPS named as the most trusted and liked companies in the U.S. In a year defined by rising costs and AI anxiety, these companies outpaced last year's top-ranked Amazon among the country's largest publicly traded companies.
Leading the pack, Costco increased its Trust Like Score (TLS) from 78 in 2024 to 79 in 2025, bucking anticipated trends for big-box retailers in a year when the sector was hit hard by tariff-induced cost increases. Conversely, Target, one of the biggest year-over-year fallers in a year marked by boycotts against the company following walkbacks of its commitments to DEI, dropped three points from 72 in 2024 to 69 in 2025. Along with Target, Tesla and FedEx also saw a three-point drop in their TLS.
"Costco's rise to the top of the list likely reflects its commitment to putting its values into action and maintaining great customer experience in 2025, even as tariffs rocked the retail sector," said Caliber CEO Shahar Silbershatz. "Whereas Costco saw a rise in its reputation because business decisions continued to match the company's stated values, Target faced significant consumer backlash and negative press after walking back the DEI commitments it had established as foundational to its mission and values. The effect of these two big box companies diverging in how they do (or do not) act on their values is evident in how key stakeholders think, feel, and act toward them."
According to Caliber's inaugural Stakeholder Intelligence Report, published last month, the rising cost of living topped the list of top global issues in 2025, with 35% of people worldwide citing it as a top force they believed would reshape society in the year ahead. AI (24%) and economic recession (20%) closely followed the increased cost of living, marking 2025 as a year of financial anxiety and concern about the consequences of technological advancements. Against this backdrop, household names maintained a strong presence in the top 10 companies, including retailers Kroger, Lowe's, Walmart, and The Home Depot, while Telecom, Big Tech, and Automotive companies rounded out the bottom of the list with Comcast (59), Meta (54), and Tesla (50) in the bottom three spots.
Here's this year's top 10:
- Costco
- The Home Depot
- UPS
- Amazon
- Lowe's
- Kroger
- FedEx
- Dell Technologies
- Walmart
- Microsoft
This year's Fortune 30 reputation ranking also ranks the most volatile companies (those with the largest gap between highest and lowest scores in 2025, indicating greater swings in stakeholder perception), most stable companies (those with the smallest gap between highest and lowest scores in 2025, indicating consistent perceptions throughout the year), and biggest turnarounds (companies with the largest recovery, measured from their lowest score in 2025 to where they finished in Q4).
Caliber's annual ranking is based on a daily tracking study that measures public perceptions of the 30 largest and most visible Fortune 500 companies, selected based on their annual revenue and familiarity among the general public. This year's results are based on 30,028 evaluations throughout 2025, representing the U.S. population.
The U.S. ranking is one of 11 country rankings that Caliber will publish this year.
About Stakeholder Intelligence
Stakeholder intelligence is the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data about all the people who matter to an organization. By understanding them better, organizations can make informed decisions that strengthen relationships, build trust, and improve outcomes. Unlike traditional approaches focused on single audiences or channels, stakeholder intelligence takes a whole-system view: tracking how perceptions change across stakeholder groups and revealing why those changes happen and what outcomes they'll drive.
About Caliber's Trust Like Score
The Trust Like Score is a metric developed by Caliber that measures a company's reputation and brand strength. Companies can use this information to better understand their stakeholders and improve communications and stakeholder relations. Caliber uses the Trust Like Score as its chief metric because research shows that stakeholder behavior is closely linked to the degree to which people trust and like a company. The Score is calculated by averaging responses to two sentences: "[Company] is a company I like" and "[Company] is a company I trust." The results are then compared to a normative scale to determine if the score is positive or negative.
About Caliber
Caliber is a stakeholder intelligence platform that helps organizations understand the people who matter to them. It surveys stakeholders from customers and suppliers to investors, talent, and opinion leaders then interprets their responses alongside other sources of data, including share price, media coverage, market signals, web analytics, proprietary research, and historical data, using AI to connect the dots and deliver real-time actionable insights. Caliber's platform includes a proprietary Trust Like Score that quantifies stakeholder perceptions and tracks how reputation affects behavior at scale and in real time. Combined with deep segmentation and customizable tools, this creates dynamic brand reputation tracking that lets leaders spot trends, test responses, and act before issues escalate. To learn more, visit http://www.groupcaliber.com.
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