No, Apple’s new head of retail Angela Ahrendts did not sell $5.3M in shares. An SEC filing reported on today shows that amount being withheld for tax purposes, though some sites are reporting she sold them.
If you actually read the form, you’ll note that footnote 2 clearly states that, “Shares withheld by Registrant to satisfy the minimum statutory tax withholding requirements on vesting of restricted stock units. No shares were sold.” (Emphasis ours.)
Ahrendts’s vesting schedule is laid out in the third footnote:
This award was granted on May 1, 2014 for a total of 62,555 restricted stock units. 26% of the award vested on June 1, 2014 and the remaining restricted stock units vest 32% on April 1, 2015; 21% on July 18, 2015; 15% on June 14, 2016; 3% on June 14, 2017; and 3% on June 14, 2018.
Late last year SVP Eddy Cue converted 50,000 units out of a grant of 100K that was awarded in September 2011. At the time, Cue withheld 25,420 shares at a price of $501.02 per share for taxes, a common, and well-known, practice for big companies.
At the same time, CEO Tim Cook tucked away 38,028 shares at a current market rate of around $19 million to satisfy taxes and didn’t sell any of his 72,877 vested shares.
Apple has a new vesting and bonus scheme that was tweaked to be more performance-based in June of last year. Apple’s return performance will be compared to the S&P 400, and if Apple is in the top third of the group, Cook will get his full annual award of 80k shares. The lower it goes, the more it will be reduced.
Ahrendts joined Apple officially last month, after being named last year. And it’s probably a bit early for her to sell shares.