Apple's new retail chief, Angela Ahrendts, pockets $5.3M after stock sale

Apple's new retail chief, Angela Ahrendts, cashed in half of her first allotment of stock grants earlier this week, pocketing nearly $5.3 million just a month after starting to work at the Cupertino, Calif. company.

New Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts pocketed more than $5 million by cashing in stock grants a month after starting work. (Image: Apple.)

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ahrendts received 16,264 shares in Apple stock when it vested June 1. The filing was posted on the SEC's website Tuesday.

Ahrendts sold 8,331 shares that same day for a pre-tax total of $5,273,523.

On her May 1 start date, Apple awarded Ahrendts, the former CEO of the Burberry clothing company, stock grants that, when fully vested, had a paper value of up to $78.5 million.

Apple shares have appreciated by nearly 8% since then, closing yesterday at $647.35, 2% higher than when Ahrendts sold shares earlier in the week.

Ahrendts was hired, analysts said last year, to revitalize and revamp Apple's retail business, and to expand its footprint in Asia, where the company has booked record sales but has only a few brick-and-mortar stores. Apple has just 10 stores in China, for example, and only 20 spread between China, Hong Kong and Japan.

Unlike her predecessors, Ahrendts will be responsible for not only Apple's physical stores, but also its online outlet.

On Thursday, Burberry published its annual report, noting that Ahrendts stepped down as its CEO on April 30, the day before she officially began working at Apple.

In that report, Burberry also revealed Ahrendts' salary and other compensation for the company's fiscal year that ended March 31.

Ahrendts' salary was #1.1 million ($1.8 million at Thursday's conversion rate) and she received a bonus of another #1.5 million ($2.5 million). She was also provided a #25,000 clothing allowance ($42,000) and a #18,000 ($30,000) car allowance, neither of which Apple provides its executives.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His email address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.

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