Talk about a signing bonus. After officially joining Apple
last week, word got out today that Angela Ahrendts has already received
113 thousand units of restricted stock. At today’s prices—remember,
APPL is back up around $600—the shares would be worth roughly $68 million.
This makes the company’s new SVP of retail
and online stores one of the highest-paid executives in the industry,
but of course, she’ll have to wait to cash in. According to a filing
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the full amount won’t
be available until 2018…
Ahrendts will receive shares spread over several different vesting periods between June 1, 2014 and June 14, 2018, assuming Ahrendts stays with the company. Were Apple’s share price to rise, the RSUs could potentially be worth significantly more over that time.A restricted stock unit is a standard form of stock compensation that reward employees for staying with the company. They are used as general compensation and for employee retention. Each RSU converts to one share of stock on its vesting date, typically set annually based on award date.
There’s a few things worth mentioning here.
For starters, once Ahrendts’ shares have vested, they’re eligible for
dividend payout. So if all 113K shares were available today, with Apple
paying $3.29 per share, per quarter, she would make roughly $1.4 million
in just dividends per year.
Also keep in mind that Apple announced last month
that it plans to continue to up dividends, and is going to split its
stock in June. The 7-1 split will turn Ahrendts’ 113K restricted stock
units into almost 800K shares, although technically it’ll still be worth
the same amount of money.
Apple announced last October
that it had hired Ahrendts, the former CEO of luxury clothing brand
Burberry, to head its retail arm. Industry watchers have praised the
company for the high-profile hire, given her impressive background and the trouble they’ve had at the position.
