Payday For Apple’s Tim Cook

Didn’t get a LinkedIn work anniversary update about top Apple executive Tim Cook? Don’t worry. It’s his fifth year, and it seems he’s doing well.

Cook announced via an SEC filing that he has now carved out the biggest slice of the company’s stock grant he was handed when he stepped into the CEO role five years ago, taking it over from Steve Jobs.

Right before the weekend kicked off, Cook said he just received 1.26 million shares — valued at about $135 million — of his company’s stock.

These 1.26 million shares, notably, were previously restricted, but now, he’s halfway through obtaining his full stock compensation plan, which includes a lucky 7 million shares by 2021. Part of the original deal was 980,000 shares for holding down the CEO spot for five years and then an additional 280,000 shares arrived after Apple stock did more than fairly well over the past three years. Half of those shares — also part of that initial grant — would vest in 2016. Then, about two years later, Apple tweaked that plan to allow a portion of those restricted shares to vest faster. About a third of the shares were still, however, tethered to how Apple’s shares performed.

No doubt, almost everyone seems to be cheering for Cupertino, despite the fact that profits are down and revenue has dipped. When Apple’s fiscal year ended in Sept. 2015 — check out PYMNTS’ Daily Data Dive edition of Apple’s Q3 2016 earnings — Cook received $10 million in salary and bonuses, but no other stock options or grants of stock. The SEC filing states that Cook sold $36 million worth of the stock and relinquished another $71 million in taxes. He is holding the remaining shares and has said previously that he plans to give the bulk of his fortune away.

Of course, this news drops in advance of the iPhone 7 launch in early September, with some rumors in the air concerning supply not meeting demand. Not to mention, concerns over phones not meeting customer expectations.

But despite those bumps at Apple, what’s next for the firm — besides sharing restricted shares with its CEO? New changes to the brand could be considered disruptive, for better or worse. Some are revering how Apple may be taking steps to help fight crime by helping police track down the bad guys via fingerprints with the Touch ID feature. The company is giving a makeover to its brick-and-mortar stores and begging customers to quit calling it “the Apple Store” and simply refer to it as “Apple.” Practice this one: “Going to Apple, be back soon!” And in Japan, you can soon pay for your public and mass transit via Apple Pay. And all of India is certainly on Cook’s radar, along with China and driverless cars.