At this time of the year, many people may have things to celebrate for as well as companies. For Apple, the famous iPhone maker, this week marked its 10-year anniversary under the leadership of CEO Tim Cook, who took the reins after the late Steve Jobs passed away in 2011.

Now, marking a ten-year anniversary is obviously a thing for CEO Cook to celebrate, but he has even much more to toast to – big dough. Just this week, he received a stock payout worth in excess of $750mn, a very large one by CEO pay standards.

• Cook received over 5 million Apple shares on Thursday as part of his vesting pay package, shares worth about $750mn at Apple’s current share price. The massive stock award is the last tranche of a vesting pay package that he was given when he took over as CEO in 2011.

• Interestingly, Cook didn’t waste time selling the shares he was given. Filings show that he sold around 5 million shares on Thursday, the same day his payout came in, netting around $752mn after selling shares for between $148-$150.

• Most of Cook’s massive stock selloff was part of a pre-arranged trading plan, a scheme commonly used by insiders and executives at companies to avoid the appearance of insider trading. Just above half the sales ($397mn) were withheld by Apple to cover his tax obligations.

• Back in 2011 when he took the reins as CEO, Cook was awarded a large vesting stock package. As it often is, the shares were broken into various tranches that’ll be unlocked if certain targets are met, usually tied to stock price. Since Cook took over, Apple’s share price has surged ten-fold adjusting for two stock splits that occurred within the period, and its annual revenue surged from $108bn in 2011 to $275bn in 2020.

• Moreover, Apple only began returning capital to shareholders with dividends and buybacks when Cook took over. Starting in 2012, the tech giant has spent over $450bn on buybacks and dividends. With all these positive stats, it’s likely that Apple shareholders are happy to give Cook such a massive stock package.

• Notably, Tim Cook donated $10mn in Apple stock this week to an unnamed charity as he cashed out dozens of times that, a filing showed. If there’s someone to be popping champagne now in his living room, it’s Cook.

• Despite his large net worth of ($1.5bn as per Bloomberg Billionaires Index), Cook continues to receive an annual salary of $3mn from Apple and then millions more in stock awards and options each year. For example, He got $15mn in compensation from the company in 2020.

Photo credit: Insider Monkey

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