Apple CEO Tim Cook sells $36M in Apple stock after receiving 5-year RSU bonus

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  • Reply 21 of 39
    Solisoli Posts: 10,038member
    Soli said:
    How dare he profit from running the world's largest corporation¡
    Largest? I don't think so.

    Most valuable? Certainly. (And that only bolsters your point). 
    Fixed.
    anantksundaramlatifbp
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  • Reply 22 of 39
    carnegiecarnegie Posts: 1,085member
    mad102190 said:
    So if he sold 990k shares at ~$106/share, where did the $35.8 million figure come from? The total value I'm calculating is over $100M. No way he paid over 70% in taxes, as these should be considered Long Term Capital Gains, and only taxed at a flat rate of 20%...
    For tax purposes such RSUs are treated as ordinary income based on their market value when they vest (or when the awardee gains effective control over them). If the recipient keeps them any appreciation (of depreciation) from there is treated as capital gains (or loses). So Mr. Cook has to pay income taxes on the value of this stock award as though he was paid its value in cash.

    As for where the $35.8 million figure comes from: Mr. Cook didn't sell 990k shares, he sold 334k shares. The other approximately 656k shares were withheld by Apple to satisfy  tax withholding requirements. Those approximately 656k shares represent about 52% of the shares, 1,260k, that vested for Mr. Cook on Wednesday. Of the remaining approximately 604k, he sold 334k.

    So... Mr. Cook received around $136 million in stock on Wednesday. Around $71 million worth of it was withheld for tax purposes (though he may end up effectively paying a different amount). Then on Thursday and Friday around $36 million worth was sold (at a slight loss relative to the stock's valuation for tax purposes).
    edited August 2016
    radarthekat
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  • Reply 23 of 39
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    Soli said:
    How dare he profit from running the world's largest corporation¡
    Largest? I don't think so.

    Most valuable? Certainly. (And that only bolsters your point). 
    all depends on what you're ranking by, of course. by market value yes, Apple has been called the largest company in the world in recent history. 

    heres 2015:

    http://www.statista.com/statistics/263264/top-companies-in-the-world-by-market-value/
    edited August 2016
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  • Reply 24 of 39
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    the gleeful savages on MR are losing their minds over this headline. easy for them to do, I realize, simple creatures as they are...
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  • Reply 25 of 39
    plovellplovell Posts: 826member
    He's doing pretty well. I still say he'll be entering politics as the next part of his career path.
    An interesting option, but not one that I think he'll take. Think about it. He's having fun, even if there are hard challenges every day. There's a lot he can do to improve many things for a lot of people. Even if he ran for the Senate, he'd be in a club of a hundred whose main activity is fighting and posturing. Not a fun place to be. Interestingly, Al Franken has done well there. I guess his earlier career positioned him well for this !
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  • Reply 26 of 39
    lkrupp said:
    What does an individual actually do with $36 million? Google says his net worth is $785 million. Does Cook have a partner, significant other, husband? Is he a loner? He has two brothers. Does he give it away or bury it in the back yard? We really don’t know very much about him do we.
    He stated he was going to give most of it away during his lifetime.
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  • Reply 27 of 39
    lkrupp said:
    What does an individual actually do with $36 million? Google says his net worth is $785 million. ...
    I think a good investor continues to put their capital out there in smart investments to keep the system moving and lubed. Money makes money. As far as spending it personally, I think he's well past that or at least should be. It would be destructive if you tried. For 'after he's gone', I think mega millionaires are doing things like invest in the Gates foundation and such. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have pushed huge sums of money there. Neither plans to pass the bulk of their wealth to their children.
    xiamenbill
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  • Reply 28 of 39
    Solisoli Posts: 10,038member
    cwingrav said:
    lkrupp said:
    What does an individual actually do with $36 million? Google says his net worth is $785 million. ...
    I think a good investor continues to put their capital out there in smart investments to keep the system moving and lubed. Money makes money. As far as spending it personally, I think he's well past that or at least should be. It would be destructive if you tried. For 'after he's gone', I think mega millionaires are doing things like invest in the Gates foundation and such. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have pushed huge sums of money there. Neither plans to pass the bulk of their wealth to their children.
    If celebrities do it, I don't see why the CEO of Apple wouldn't also invest in companies he hears about. 
    edited August 2016
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  • Reply 29 of 39
    Maybe Mr. Cook will finally pay back the $35 million loan I gave him.  ;)
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  • Reply 30 of 39
    doggonedoggone Posts: 413member
    mad102190 said:
    So if he sold 990k shares at ~$106/share, where did the $35.8 million figure come from? The total value I'm calculating is over $100M. No way he paid over 70% in taxes, as these should be considered Long Term Capital Gains, and only taxed at a flat rate of 20%...
    These are options.  Cook buys the stock at one price set back when the options were initiated and sells them at current price.  The difference is profit around $36M.

    With options, you have to buy them when they mature. No one really ever has the cash on hand to pay for them so you typically sell a portion to buy all the remainder.  You also sell enough to cover the tax that will be levied.
    Solicully
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  • Reply 31 of 39
    plovellplovell Posts: 826member
    lmac said:
    Must not be anything good in the pipeline, or there'd be reason to hold onto it.
    It's more like a pre-planned sale. The timing was determined long ago.
    And he's diversifying, which is a good plan. And since he's selling a third, he's retaining two-thirds.
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  • Reply 32 of 39
    lmac said:
    Must not be anything good in the pipeline, or there'd be reason to hold onto it.
    Any good investor knows to pull some profits off the table. It's not like Cook sold the majority of his holdings.
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  • Reply 33 of 39
    haarhaar Posts: 563member
    Tim cook should just retire after leaving Apple. Live the good live. OTOH why would he leave Apple.
     Going into Politics is Stupid, just like giving away all of his money. 
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  • Reply 34 of 39
    "Tim Cook shows tremndous faith in Apple's future, opts not to cash in 2/3rds of his payout".
    That's the headline that would be nice to see.
    palominebadmonk
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  • Reply 35 of 39
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    lmac said:
    Must not be anything good in the pipeline, or there'd be reason to hold onto it.
    It's more like a pre-planned sale. The timing was determined long ago.

    It is more than pre-planned. RSU are sold on the vesting date to pay the tax liability on the total value of the vest RCU amount. Simple example, if you have a 100 RSU vest today and they are worth $1000 at today's market price and your tax bracket is 20% you own the government $200 today and they must be paid on the day the shares vest whether you sell the entire 100 share or want to hand on to them. So Apple will automatically sell 20 share or $200 to pay the tax man. In Cook's case we do not know if the $38M is the tax bill or total vested amount including the tax bill. Considering Cook is in the 39% tax bracket (these are not consider capital gains and taxes at the lower %, they are consider income) I suspect this is just the tax bill being paid.

    Since most people on here never owned RCU they would number understand this.

    edited August 2016
    SpamSandwichfastasleep
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  • Reply 36 of 39
    NemWannemwan Posts: 118member
    He's doing pretty well. I still say he'll be entering politics as the next part of his career path.
    I don't see a career that says he is driven to seek power or enjoys the political game. Everything he's done along those lines happened because of things he'd wish hadn't happened. Being CEO? He'd rather Steve Jobs was still alive. Anti-discrimination? He'd rather there was no discrimination. Fighting the FBI over the encryption on a terrorist's iPhone? He'd rather that hadn't happened.

    At Apple he can do what he thinks is right and win. In politics he can do what he thinks is right and lose. There may be a lot of people who try to persuade him to go into politics but I suspect he'd need a lot of persuading. I think he wouldn't do it if it's not something he needs to do.
    edited August 2016
    badmonk
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  • Reply 37 of 39
    SpamSandwichspamsandwich Posts: 33,407member
    NemWan said:
    He's doing pretty well. I still say he'll be entering politics as the next part of his career path.
    I don't see a career that says he is driven to seek power or enjoys the political game. Everything he's done along those lines happened because of things he'd wish hadn't happened. Being CEO? He'd rather Steve Jobs was still alive. Anti-discrimination? He'd rather there was no discrimination. Fighting the FBI over the encryption on a terrorist's iPhone? He'd rather that hadn't happened.

    At Apple he can do what he thinks is right and win. In politics he can do what he thinks is right and lose. There may be a lot of people who try to persuade him to go into politics but I suspect he'd need a lot of persuading. I think he wouldn't do it if it's not something he needs to do.
    I see it as completely in his line of sight. Bad political policies happen because other people are in Washington making those decisions, all of which have repercussions they ignore.
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  • Reply 38 of 39
    carnegiecarnegie Posts: 1,085member
    doggone said:
    mad102190 said:
    So if he sold 990k shares at ~$106/share, where did the $35.8 million figure come from? The total value I'm calculating is over $100M. No way he paid over 70% in taxes, as these should be considered Long Term Capital Gains, and only taxed at a flat rate of 20%...
    These are options.  Cook buys the stock at one price set back when the options were initiated and sells them at current price.  The difference is profit around $36M.

    With options, you have to buy them when they mature. No one really ever has the cash on hand to pay for them so you typically sell a portion to buy all the remainder.  You also sell enough to cover the tax that will be levied.
    These are not options, they are Restricted Stock Units. The awardee gets the specified number of shares on a specified date and, in some cases, if specified performance criteria are met. They don't have to buy the shares. All Apple employees - not just upper management - can now get RSUs if they remain with Apple long enough, rather than just receiving stock options or being able to buy shares at a discount through an employee purchase plan.

    The $36 million or so was the value of the 334,000 shares that Mr. Cook sold, not taking into account the more than 600,000 that were withheld for tax purposes.
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  • Reply 39 of 39
    carnegiecarnegie Posts: 1,085member

    maestro64 said:
    lmac said:
    Must not be anything good in the pipeline, or there'd be reason to hold onto it.
    It's more like a pre-planned sale. The timing was determined long ago.

    It is more than pre-planned. RSU are sold on the vesting date to pay the tax liability on the total value of the vest RCU amount. Simple example, if you have a 100 RSU vest today and they are worth $1000 at today's market price and your tax bracket is 20% you own the government $200 today and they must be paid on the day the shares vest whether you sell the entire 100 share or want to hand on to them. So Apple will automatically sell 20 share or $200 to pay the tax man. In Cook's case we do not know if the $38M is the tax bill or total vested amount including the tax bill. Considering Cook is in the 39% tax bracket (these are not consider capital gains and taxes at the lower %, they are consider income) I suspect this is just the tax bill being paid.

    Since most people on here never owned RCU they would number understand this.

    Yeah, Apple typically withholds a portion of the shares for tax purposes when they vest. In Mr. Cook's case that portion has typically been a little more than 50%, he has California taxes in addition to federal taxes. In some cases the SEC filings for him have indicated that he made additional cash payments for estimated taxes because the amount of stock required to be withheld might not be enough to cover his tax liability.

    That said, the share sells that generated the $36 million or so referred to here didn't relate to taxes. Those sells were in addition to the shares withheld for tax purposes.

    This is, btw, typical of how Mr. Cook handles RSUs that vest over multi-year periods.
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