Apple CEO Sells $36 Mln From Block Of Compensation Stock

(RTTNews) - Apple Inc. (AAPL) Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook received 1.26 million shares of Apple stock, valued around $135 million, that previously were restricted. He now has hit the halfway point of a stock-compensation plan that could see him awarded seven million shares by 2021.

Cook earned the bulk of the shares—980,000—by remaining CEO for five years. He earned the additional 280,000 shares because Apple stock outperformed more than two-thirds of the companies in the S&P 500-stock index over the past three years.

Cook sold $36 million worth of this stock, and forfeited another $71 million to cover taxes. He is holding the remaining shares.

The bulk of Cook's compensation comes from this plan. In the fiscal year ended September 2015, he was paid $10 million in salary and bonus, but received no additional grants of stock or stock options.

When he took over as Apple's chief executive in 2011, Cook was given one million restricted stock units—now equal to seven million, following Apple's 2014 7-for-1 stock split. Under the initial grant, half of those shares were to vest this year.