ExecutiveCompensation
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Numerous Apple executives sell millions of dollars' worth of shares
Last Friday we reported on a new SEC filing from Apple which relayed that Apple's Board of Directors tweaked Tim Cook's compensation package by adding a performance metric to his stock options. In addition, there were a number of other SEC filings from Apple which disclosed that a number of top executives sold millions of dollars' worth of Apple shares that had recently vested. Here's the breakdown: Apple CEO Tim Cook sold 41,391 shares for $17,115,178.50 Jeffrey Williams sold 38,181 shares for $15,787,843.50 Bob Mansfield sold 14,465 shares for $5,981,277.50 CFO Peter Oppenheimer sold 37,828 shares for $15,641,878 Phil Schiller sold 37,878 shares for $16,287,540 Bruce Sewell sold 37,828 shares for $15,641,878 Apple investors, however, shouldn't be worried that Apple's executive team is losing faith in the company. Keep in mind that the shares above were originally part of an allotment granted back in November 2011 with two vesting dates. The first one was on June 21, 2013 and the second is set for March 21, 2016. In other words, it's business as usual.
Apple's execs are not the best-paid
A report earlier this week from Businessweek claimed Apple has four of the five highest-paid employees among Standard & Poor's 500 companies. The figures cited in this report included both base salary and vested stock packages, which has some people, like Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Apple 2.0, crying foul. DeWitt open his acrid retort to the Businessweek article by asking whether "Bloomberg's brainiacs know the difference between an RSU and a pay check?" DeWitt points out that the compensation packages for Apple's top brass may have increased, but their pay has remained steady. These compensation packages include restricted stock units (RSU) that are not immediately available for the Apple executives and should not be counted as part of their pay. These RSUs are part of a retention package that becomes available after an employee works a set number of years. If the employee leaves before the RSUs have vested, then he or she loses that money. It's a common method used by companies to entice their employees to stay put for a while.
