Apple shareholders approve big stock payout for Tim Cook dinner; dividend increase coming

Apple shareholders on Tuesday voted to re-elect the firm’s board of directors and approve 2020 pay for executives, at the side of CEO Tim Cook dinner.

The vote used to be nonbinding and advisory. Apple shareholders also voted down a shareholder proposal adversarial by Apple that will compel the firm to chop help govt pay when compared with median Apple employee pay.

The votes, which had been anticipated, are another signal that Apple’s shareholders are pleased with the firm’s management and CEO. Apple, valued at more than $2.1 trillion, currently reported a quarter with $111.4 billion in revenue and gross sales increase in each and every product category, even in the route of an endemic year.

Apple’s board strongly supported Cook dinner’s pay equipment in a filing, citing a 867% return to shareholders, at the side of dividends, from when he took over as Apple CEO in 2011 through September 2020.

Apple’s proxy also integrated information about an fairness equipment announced final year that might maybe perhaps moreover procure CEO Tim Cook dinner 1 million new shares if the firm hits obvious targets. Then all all over again, that fairness equipment used to be not granted till Sept. 27, 2020, which used to be the first day of Apple’s 2021 fiscal year. So this year’s shareholder vote on govt compensation didn’t in actual fact quilt that grant.

Cook dinner also said that Apple deliberate to increase the firm’s dividend. Dividends totaled over $14 billion in the final four quarters, he said. The firm paid a dividend of 20.5 cents per portion in the final two quarters.

Covid-19 and Apple’s success as a trade in the route of an endemic year used to be foremost theme of Cook dinner’s remarks to shareholders. Final year, Cook dinner said the pandemic used to be essentially the most exceptional ambiance Apple’s ever faced.

“A year later, you will must end, and speak wow,” he said.

Cook dinner said in a ask-and-reply session that while Apple had tailored effectively to some distance-off work — Apple employees had been working from home since March — the firm aloof “cannot wait till we can salvage together in the placement of work all all over again,” suggesting that Apple will aloof be location of work centered after the pandemic, in comparability to rival tech companies which possess announced plans to shift to a some distance-off work mannequin.

He said that one smartest thing about working from an location of work used to be serendipitous interactions between employees.

Cook dinner also talked about Apple’s acquisitions system. He said that Apple has obtained 100 companies over the final six years. In a roundabout contrivance, Apple acquires a firm each and every three to four weeks, Cook dinner said, largely aimed against shopping technology and expertise.

In step with a shareholder ask about whether or not Apple faces regulatory challenges round its regulate of the iPhone App Store, Cook dinner said that Apple doesn’t possess a monopoly. “Whereas scrutiny is continuously dazzling, accusations like these give contrivance on an cheap examination of the facts,” he said.

Correction: This year’s shareholder vote on govt compensation didn’t encompass the new restricted stock unit (RSU) award granted to Tim Cook dinner on the first day of Apple’s 2021 fiscal year. An earlier version of this chronicle also misstated Apple’s revenue for the final quarter, which used to be $111.4 billion.