Tim Cook’s $99 Million Apple Payout Opposed by Shareholder Group

Institutional Shareholder Services, a shareholder advisory group, is asking Apple investors to vote against CEO Tim Cook’s $98.7 million USD payout for 2021 — reports The Financial Times.

Last year, the 61-year-old executive received $82 million in stock awards, a $12 million cash bonus, and $3 million in salary, along with $630,630 in a personal security allowance and $712,488 for his personal use of a private jet.

ISS reportedly told its clients in a letter that there “is a significant concern” with the stock grant awarded to Cook, which was the Apple chief’s first since 2011, and also added that the perks enjoyed by the CEO “significantly exceeded” those offered by comparable companies last year.

Institutional Shareholder Services advises some of the largest investment funds and financial institutions on corporate governance and shareholder votes, commanding 61% of the business. This is the first time since 2015 that the advisory group has recommended that shareholders vote against Apple’s pay.

Shareholder votes on Apple’s remuneration packages for executives are merely advisory and do not guarantee a response from the company’s board of directors. However, a significant protest from investors could sway the board into reconsidering compensation packages.

Apple’s board of directors, in its annual proxy statement published last month, noted that revenues and profits in 2021 “significantly exceeded” the company’s targets, triggering the maximum payouts under executives’ performance-based bonuses.

Apple had a stellar 2021 as sales soared and the company inched ever closer to breaking $3 trillion in market capitalization (ultimately achieving that goal at the start of this year). For the fiscal quarter that ended December 25, 2021, alone, the iPhone maker reported record revenues of $123.9 billion and a net profit of $34.6 billion.

The company’s board of directors said in its proxy filing that the compensation committee “will continue to consider shareholder feedback and the results of say-on-pay votes when making future compensation decisions.”