Affiliate Disclosure
If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy.

Apple execs Angela Ahrendts and Bruce Sewell each sell over $10M in company stock

Apple's head of retail, Angela Ahrendts, last week sold off 75,000 shares of Apple stock to net $11.1 million, while general counsel Bruce Sewell shed 67,500 shares to gain over $10 million.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made public on Monday, Ahrendts executed a series of five transactions conducted between May 4 and May 8, each involving multiple trades at prices ranging from $145.84 to $150.89. Following the sale, Ahrendts still holds 103,116 shares worth $15.8 million at the end of trading on Monday.

The sale was accomplished according to a trading plan Ahrendts adopted in February.

Hired in 2014, Ahrendts has become the public face of Apple's retail operations.

Shortly after joining the ranks in Cupertino, Ahrendts began planning a drastic revamp of the company's brick-and-mortar operations that included "next-gen" store redesigns. The updated design language, which features high-flung ceilings with integrate light panels, a large custom television display and copious amounts of wood furniture, first launched with a new outlet in Brussels in 2015.

Ahrendts is working to transform the Apple store into a "town square" where customers can engage and interact with their local communities. As part of the new initiative, Ahrendts last month announced the "Today at Apple" program, which involves a series of 60 different educational sessions led by "Creative Pros" skilled in fields like music and photography. As part of the effort, so-called "forums" will be built into larger flagship locations to host performances by local music acts.

In a separate filing on Monday, Sewell reported a May 5 transaction executed in multiple trades at prices ranging from $148.59 to $148.895. The weighted average sale price was calculated at $148.46. After selling the securities last week, Sewell retains 141,325 AAPL shares currently worth $21.6 million.

Serving as Apple's general counsel since 2009, Sewell has long operated out of the public eye. That changed last year when the U.S. Department of Justice went to war with Apple over a locked iPhone used by a suspect in the San Bernardino terror attacks. In March of 2016, Sewell presented Apple's case for strong device encryption and personal safeguards to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.



53 Comments

mcfrazieriv 10 Years · 71 comments

And then they donate it all to their poorest retail employees! YAY!

anantksundaram 18 Years · 20391 comments

And then they donate it all to their poorest retail employees! YAY!

And they should.....because....?

chasm 10 Years · 3626 comments

1. Apple employees aren't minimum wage workers, so no donations needed. Now the Walton family, OTOH, are just plain robber barons. 2. Both Sewell and Dame Ahrendts could have made another quarter-million easy by just waiting till today. :)

carnegie 10 Years · 1082 comments

chasm said:
1. Apple employees aren't minimum wage workers, so no donations needed. Now the Walton family, OTOH, are just plain robber barons. 2. Both Sewell and Dame Ahrendts could have made another quarter-million easy by just waiting till today. :)

Hindsight.  :)

Ms. Ahrendts shares were sold pursuant to a trading plan adopted in February. She had just received a little over 79,000 shares (net of tax withholding) on Monday as part of the package she was awarded when she came to Apple. Some of those were (stock) performance based, some were just time based. I wouldn't be surprised if see another filing for her after tomorrow indicating that she sold another 4,000 or so. These last 75,000 were sold in groups of 25,000 per day on Thursday, Friday and Monday. They have to report such sales within 3 days, so a filing couldn't have waited for one more day of sales if the intention was to sell all of the shares that just vested last week.

gatorguy 13 Years · 24630 comments

chasm said:
1. Apple employees aren't minimum wage workers, so no donations needed. Now the Walton family, OTOH, are just plain robber barons. 

Ms Ahrendts is responsible for:
Apple store Mac Specialist -  $13.34/hr
Apple Retail Specialist - $14.94/hr
Family Room Specialist - $15.58/hr

So not that far from minimum wage.