Apple’s Tim Cook receives shares worth $750m on 10th anniversary as CEO

iPhone maker’s shares rose almost 1,200% since Cook became chief executive

Apple's chief executive Tim Cook earned more than $14.7 million in salary last year. Reuters

Apple chief executive Tim Cook received more than five million shares this week as he completes 10 years in the top job.

The tranche of shares is part of the deal that Mr Cook struck when he took over from the company’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, in August 2011.

He has sold most of the shares for more than $750 million, a regulatory filing submitted by the company to the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed.

Mr Cook’s award was determined on the basis of Apple's performance or “total shareholder return [TSR] relative to the other companies in the S&P 500” stock index over a three-year period since August 25, 2018, the filing said.

“TSR is calculated based on the change in a company's stock price during the three-year period, taking into account any dividends paid during that period, which are assumed to be reinvested in the stock,” it said.

The iPhone maker’s shares climbed almost 192 per cent over the past three years and about 1,200 per cent since Mr Cook became chief executive of the company.

Apple’s shares have soared in recent years as Mr Cook helped the company launch new iPhones, smartwatches, AirPods and digital services, while fending off the impact of US-China trade tension and a global pandemic.

Mr Cook, 60, earned more than $14.7m in salary last year, an annual increase of almost 28 per cent. He earned a fixed base salary of $3m but was awarded $10.7m in incentives for his performance and more than $1m in other compensation.

The Apple chief executive, who agreed to a revised compensation package last year that runs to the end of 2026, said in 2015 that he plans to give away most of his fortune. He has already donated millions of dollars worth of Apple shares.

He donated almost $10m worth of Apple shares to an unnamed charity this week, another SEC filing showed.

The Cupertino-based company’s net profit in the last quarter that ended on June 26 surged an annual 93.2 per cent to more than $21.7 billion.

Revenue grew 36 per cent on an annual basis to $81.4bn during the quarter, significantly exceeding analysts’ estimates of $73.3bn. iPhone sales account for about 48 per cent of the company's revenue.