Apple's Tim Cook likely to reap $120M in shares of stock on Friday because of AAPL performance

By Roger Fingas

Barring some sort of financial disaster, Apple CEO Tim Cook is set to collect stock worth a massive $120 million on Friday.

Cook will get 280,000 shares for his continued work as CEO, and up to double that if Apple's stock market return in the past three years beats two thirds of the companies in the S&P 500. Apple has returned 119 percent in that timeframe, Bloomberg noted, exceeding 80 percent of S&P businesses.

Since Cook took over the CEO role in 2011 he has received annual stock handouts, originally meant to vest in two increments across the span of a decade. Two years later, Cook asked the board of directors to link a third of those shares to Apple's relative stock market performance.

The company recently became the first in the U.S. to reach a $1 trillion market cap, all but guaranteeing a large payout.

Cook would be rich with or without continued stock grants. He's estimated to be worth $700 million, and receives a $3 million annual salary -- which, last year, was supplemented by a $9.33 million bonus.

Like some other high-profile businessmen, Cook has promised to donate most of his money to charity. Earlier this week he gifted 23,215 shares, worth just under $5 million, to an unidentified organization.