Apple executives awarded $122 million in stock grants

Apple last week granted more than $122 million in restricted stock-based compensation to members of its executive team for their current and future efforts in driving the company's success, regulatory filings with Securities and Exchange Commission show.

The grants for restricted stock units, which won't vest until March 24, 2012, aim to reward members of Apple's top brass for their performance thus far and lock them into their roles at the company for the foreseeable future. Should any of the executives vacate their position ahead of the vesting date, they'll forfeit their right to claim the shares.

In total, nine grants were issued ranging from 60,000 shares to 200,000 shares, which when combined carried a total market value of $122,101,600 based on the closing price of Apple shares Monday ($105.26).

The most heavily rewarded executives where Chief Operating Officer, Timothy D. Cook, who received 200,000 shares ($21,052,000), and Senior Vice President Retail, Ron Johnson, and Chief Financial Officer, Peter Oppenheimer, each of which were granted 150,000 shares ($15,789,000).

Five other executives were each granted 120,000 shares ($12,631,200), including Senior Vice President Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller; Senior Vice President Software Engineering, Bertrand Serlet; Senior Vice President Mac Hardware Engineering, Bob Mansfield; Senior Vice President Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive; and Senior Vice President iPhone Software, Scott Forstall.

Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Daniel Cooperman, who came to Apple last year from Oracle, was issued a grant for 60,000 shares worth approximately $6,315,600.