Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook recently celebrated five years at the helm of the world’s most valuable company by market cap, and as for his anniversary, he received a load of shares. He’s apparently been quick to cash out his anniversary present as he raked in about $64.55 million from selling a huge chunk of the shares he received.
Cook unloads Apple (AAPL) stock
Between August 25 and 31, the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) chief sold more than 600,000 shares of his company’s stock at prices ranging between $105.95 and $107.73 per share, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All of the sales were done under a Rule 10b5-w trading plan which Cook adopted on May 16. The share sales also came after a fresh 1.26 million restricted stock units vested on August 24.
After the vesting of the new RSUs, Cook held almost 2.3 million shares of Apple stock, but following all the sales over the last week, he now has about 1.04 million shares. The iPhone maker withheld about 656,000 shares after the RSUs vested for tax purposes, which left Cook with more than 1.64 million shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock after the required tax withholding, according to Street Insider. In other words, it means he dumped 38% of his stake in the company over the last week.
Cook still has plenty of skin the game, however, as the shares he still holds are worth about $110.6 million. For the record, Apple SVPs Daniel Riccio and Craig Federighi also moved some shares of the company around over the last couple of weeks, according to regulatory filings.
Jim Cramer isn’t selling Apple (AAPL) stock
Most of Cook’s income comes in the form of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock, as his salary was “only” $2 million last year, which is small by Silicon Valley standards. He may have just wanted to take some profits in light of the fact that most of his income is in stock, but one person who’s not selling is CNBC host Jim Cramer.
This week he described Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock chart as “the worst in the book,” but he also said that he’s not ready to dump it. He noted before the news about the EU slapping the company with a $14.5 billion tax bill that the chart technicals suggested that Apple stock was about to dive. Cramer added that not only does the chart look horrible, and the iPhone 7 doesn’t sound very “inspiring,” he still sees plenty of things that could happen for it.
InvestorPlace contributor Chris Tyler also advises investors to buy on the pullback in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock ahead of next week’s iPhone 7 unveiling. He pointed out that the stock broke higher than the 200-day simple moving average and down-channel resistance level, which then created the setup for a nice rally. The shares reversed then, but Tyler explained today that now a doji decision candle points to a low for a minor correction, backed up by the Bollinger Band and past channel resistance.
Of course the iPhone 7 event is only days away, which does create some event risk, he notes, although he believes disappointment in Apple’s next smartphone is already baked into its share price.
Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock closed up 0.59% at $106.73 on Thursday.
