Dec. 27, 2013 6:26 p.m. ET
Apple Inc. AAPL -0.68% Apple Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq $560.09 -3.81 -0.68% Dec. 27, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 7.96M AFTER HOURS $559.75 -0.34 -0.06% Dec. 27, 2013 7:36 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 97,008 P/E Ratio 14.03 Market Cap $507.36 Billion Dividend Yield 2.18% Rev. per Employee $2,127,850 12/27/13 Nokia Drops Maps App from iPho... 12/27/13 Apple CEO's Pay Remained Stead... 12/27/13 Top 10 MoneyBeat Posts of 2013 More quote details and news » Chief Executive Tim Cook received $4.25 million in salary and bonus for the fiscal year ended Sept. 28, little changed from the previous year.
In its annual proxy filing Friday, Apple said Mr. Cook didn't receive stock-based compensation in either year. He was awarded one million restricted Apple shares, then valued at $376 million, in August 2011, when he replaced Steve Jobs as the company's CEO.
In June, the board changed the vesting terms—at Mr. Cook's behest, Apple said—of those shares to tie roughly one third of them to the company's performance, instead of merely the duration of his tenure. Under the new terms, Mr. Cook will only receive the full one million shares if Apple's stock outperforms two-thirds of the other stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500-Stock Index in each year.
Investor Carl Icahn plans to offer a proposal at Apple's Feb. 28 shareholder meeting calling on the company to commit to buying back at least $50 billion worth of its own shares by Sept. 27, 2014, the proxy said. Mr. Icahn had previously said he planned to submit the proposal.
The activist billionaire had originally urged the technology company to repurchase $150 billion of its stock immediately. He called a previously announced buyback by Apple, which the company said was the biggest buyback authorization in history, too small and too slow.
The board recommended that shareholders vote against Mr. Icahn's proposal because Apple's competitive landscape requires "unprecedented investment, flexibility and access to resources." But Apple's board said it is "fully committed to returning cash to shareholders."
In its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 28, Apple earned $7.5 billion in net income and reported a cash position of about $147 billion, steady with the previous quarter, thanks to buybacks and dividends. The company said it returned $36 billion to shareholders in dividends and buybacks in the previous five quarters.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based electronics maker proposed to change its articles of incorporation to eliminate the board's so-called "blank check" authority to issue preferred shares without a shareholder vote. Apple tried to eliminate this authority at its 2013 shareholder meeting, but pulled the proposal after a federal judge said it had been improperly bundled with two other proposals.
Hedge fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, who was also pressing Apple to return more of its cash to shareholders, opposed the proposal at the time because it would make it harder for the company to issue a new preferred dividend-yielding stock.
On Friday, Apple said it wants to eliminate the "blank-check" authority, because it could be potentially misused by the board to frustrate a merger or acquisition. Apple said it does not have any plans for issuing preferred shares. If the proposal is approved, Apple could still issue preferred shares, but would need shareholder approval.
Write to Daisuke Wakabayashi at Daisuke.Wakabayashi@wsj.com
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