These are good times for Apple CEO Tim Cook. Just a few weeks ago, Apple became the first publicly traded company to surpass $1 trillion in valuation. Since then, the company’s share price has hit record levels. Through it all, the CEO has received a boatload of Apple stock.
According to Business Insider, Cook has made over $650 million in stock awards since becoming the company’s CEO in 2011. When salary and other compensation is added, he has made $701 million in pay over the last seven years. Each year, Cook is awarded restricted shares of Apple, which is tied closely to how the company performs versus the rest of the S&P 500 index.
According to Alex Knowlton, senior research analyst at Equilar, an executive compensation research firm:
Cook has been one of the highest paid CEOs in the tech industry over the past seven years, and Apple’s stock price has nearly quadrupled since he was granted 7 million shares when he first became CEO.
To date, only Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has made more money over the same period. But it’s not even close. Alex Knowlton, senior research analyst at Equilar, an executive compensation research firm says Zuckerberg’s stock options over the same time are worth almost $5.8 billion.
Cook recently cashed in $121 million in stock grants, with the majority of those proceedings going towards taxes, according to an SEC filing on Tuesday. Even after the sale, he still owns 800,000 shares of Apple, worth approximately $195 million.
Back in 2015, Cook said he planned to give most of his Apple stock away to charity. Just last week, an Apple regulatory filing said Cook had donated 23,215 of his Apple shares to charity.
Is Tim Cook worth the compensation he has received since becoming CEO? Let us know your thoughts below.