Apple shareholders on Tuesday voted to approve compensation for Apple executives, including an equity package announced last year for Apple CEO Tim Cook who said that Apple planned to increase the company’s dividend.
The vote was non-binding and advisory. Apple shareholders also voted down a shareholder proposal opposed by Apple that would compel the company to reduce executive pay compared to median Apple employee pay.
Apple’s board strongly supported Cook’s pay package in a filing, citing a 867% return to shareholders, including dividends, from when he took over as Apple CEO in 2011 through September 2020.
Cook also said that Apple planned to increase the company’s dividend. Dividends totaled over $14 billion in the last four quarters, Cook said. The company paid a dividend of $0.205 per share in the last two quarters.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s dividend raises to date have been slight, as the company prefers to invest mainly in share repurchases, so expect something like a few cents per share increase ($0.22/share?) when Apple next reports earnings at the end of April. Last year, Apple’s board of directors declared a cash dividend of $0.82 per share of the company’s common stock (pre-split), an increase of 6 percent.