Apple CEO Cook Receives $4.25 million as stock trails S&P 500

Apple Inc. (AAPL) Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook received compensation valued at $4.25 million this year, a 1.9 percent increase over 2012, even as the iPhone maker’s stock gains lagged the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

The package includes a salary of $1.4 million and $2.8 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation for the fiscal year that ended in September, the Cupertino, California-based company said in a filing yesterday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cook, 53, is contending with thinning profit margins and slowing sales growth as rival gadget makers such as Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) take on Apple with lower-priced devices. After outperforming the S&P 500 for four straight years, Apple shares have gained 5.3 percent this year, compared with the index’s 29 percent advance.

Apple tapped Cook, a 15-year company veteran, to run the business prior to the death of his predecessor, Steve Jobs, in 2011. Cook received compensation that year of $378 million, one of the biggest pay packages on record, boosted by $376.2 million in stock awards that he’ll get over a decade.

In 2013, Cook forfeited more than 7,000 restricted stock units because of the company’s stock performance to August from August 2012, according to the filing. The modification was part of his 2011 agreement.