http://www.macrumors.com/2010/03/26/...f-apple-stock/

In a series of filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, Apple revealed that a number of its senior executives have cashed in on over a million shares of Apple stock as shares granted to them over four years ago became fully vested. Fortune offers a summary of the transactions:

More than a million restricted shares of Apple (AAPL) stock that seven of them were granted on Dec. 14, 2005 became fully vested Wednesday. The next day, with Apple opening at an all-time record high, four of them sold off all those shares pursuant, as the SEC Form 4 has it, to a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.
The SEC maintains strict regulations regarding insider trading, requiring those shareholders with access to nonpublic information that could materially affect a company's stock price to fully disclose their trading to the SEC and take other steps such as scheduling trades in advance in order to limit the ability of such shareholders to take advantage of other traders. The vesting of stock grants that occurred this week also created tax liabilities for the executives involved, requiring them to cash in at least some of their holdings to cover those costs.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook took home the biggest payday yesterday, selling 300,000 shares of stock for a total of $68.8 million. $32 million of that amount was set aside for taxes. Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer and Senior Vice President of Retail Ron Johnson each turned in 200,000 shares to the tune of nearly $46 million apiece, and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller cashed in 150,000 shares for nearly $35 million.

Senior Vice Presidents Bertrand Serlet (Software Engineering), Scott Forstall (iPhone Software), and Bob Mansfield (Mac Hardware Engineering) also cashed in on their stock grants, but only in sufficient quantities to cover their tax obligations.
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what an evil thing to do! They should have waited until it came down from it's 52 week high and then cashed them in.
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What's your point? They take stock options instead of pay. They did what was allowed and did it according to the rules.
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:-) Just sharing some info. What's your point?
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If I were the execs, I would also cash out now....and then I would take my money that I made and started playing puts on Apple for the months of May and June....no way is that stock going too maintain its value...
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I misread your post, thought that you were saying that the sale was wrong. We have known each other since the old board, sorry for misreading your post.:-)
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I don't mind being called out, but I have to do something first. :-)

I don't blame them one bit.
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Thats BADASS! Wish I was them!
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So is Apple going to go up or down?
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They were forced by the new tax rules to cash in some stock based upon the vesting date. Unless you have the cash on hand, taxes are due on the stock value on the date they become fully vested. In some cases these guys may have millions of shares to pay taxes upon. In some ways they would have been better off to become fully vested at a lower price and then see the stock rise. Now they have a big problem it the stock falls as they paid taxes on the high. :-)
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The effects of a sell off like that could be a short-term down turn but the product is too good for the stock to stay down too long.
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Do the TOE have to file with the SEC when they cash in their vested shares of Cgar Asylum?



:-)
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The next day, with Apple opening at an all-time record high...
Freakin brilliant.
The rough part was the setting half of it aside for taxes part. That's gotta suck.
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Yeah but it's still multi millions they probably did not have prior. :-)
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I hate big executives like Dave K as much as the next guy, :-) but even while I think it is
wrong for people to be richer than me, I think it is MEGAwrong to have to pay 47-8 percent
tax on ANYTHING! That is so wrong. Just cause it's a huge pile of money doesn't mean
there should be an equally huge pile of tax. 28 percent on that would be fair.
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That's a good point, but they also could've chose to sell only enough to pay the taxes.

As a shareholder that's been considering selling, this is a considerable nudge in that direction.
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Maybe they need a little extra cigar money! :-)
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:-)

Even 28% is too much. Should be around 15% would be fair.
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yeah, but it's freaking half

congrats on your success, now give half of your success to the government

it would be no more or less atrocious if he made $100 and had to give 48 to taxes
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Probably not a bad idea... but I thought the same thing (about it not maintaining it's value) back when the stock hit 200 and sold half my position. Kind of wish I hadn't, but I had more than doubled up, so I didn't want to be greedy.
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