bob mansfieldAs revealed in a regulatory filing yesterday, Apple senior vice president for hardware engineering Bob Mansfield on Monday exercised a set of stock options he has held for a number of years, immediately selling off the stock for a gain of nearly $12.5 million. Under the stock option program, Mansfield was eligible to purchase 30,000 of Apple stock at a price of $36.54 per share and immediately sold them off in several batches averaging $452.28 per share.

Mansfield's stock options dated back to an award made in June of 2005 as an enticement for him to stay with the company over the next several years. Those options fully vested by June 2009, but Mansfield has been holding onto them since that time as Apple's stock has continued to surge. With the options set to expire in June of this year and Apple's stock continuing to perform well, Mansfield undoubtedly thought that this would be an excellent time to exercise those options.

Mansfield has been a relatively active participant in Apple's stock option and grant award programs for its senior executives, regularly cashing in his shares while continuing to hold only a small amount of stock. With the quick sale of this week's shares obtained through the options, Mansfield owns only 501 shares of Apple stock.

His stock sales do not mean that he is not invested with the company, however, as Mansfield currently holds one restricted stock unit grant that would see him earn 100,000 shares in 2014 and a second grant of 150,000 shares that will vest in two equal portions in June 2013 and March 2016. All of those grants, which together would be worth roughly $114 million at Apple's current stock price, are contingent upon Mansfield remaining with Apple.

Top Rated Comments

rdowns Avatar
160 months ago
It's a good time to cash out. He knows with Steve gone, Apple can only go down in the long run and they're already massively over-valued as it is. They were $83 a share just a few years ago. Over $450 a share? Come on. It would be stupid to invest at that price (and yes there are people at work I know buying it because someone told them it was a $500 stock...yes it might hit $500 for awhile, but gaining $50 isn't worth the risk of it dropping hundreds like it did a few years ago when it went from around $300 to $83 almost overnight). And this time it will NOT come back because Apple is now run by the same types that destroyed it the first time around. Apple has a few more years of profitability based on current products like the iPhone and iPad, but without a visionary to keep the products coming, it's only a matter of time and the stock will start slipping LONG before the profits end (and you don't make a dime when it drops...you lose your shirt and everything else you put into it). Clearly, Bob Mansfield is fully aware of this as the hardware chief and he's taking it to the bank. Kudos to Bob. ;)

Did you even read the story before you posted? These options were set to expire in June. In other words, use them or lose them. And as stated in the story, he has been active in cashing out his options.

"Apple is now run by the same types that destroyed it the first time around" Where do people get this stuff?
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TurboMoses Avatar
160 months ago
No one can call him an idiot for making out with over 12 million, really.



His bro looks just as stoked:
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gmcalpin Avatar
160 months ago
One of his kids must be about to graduate high school. Time to pay for college! :)
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
URFloorMatt Avatar
160 months ago
It's a good time to cash out. He knows with Steve gone, Apple can only go down in the long run and they're already massively over-valued as it is. They were $83 a share just a few years ago. Over $450 a share? Come on. It would be stupid to invest at that price (and yes there are people at work I know buying it because someone told them it was a $500 stock...yes it might hit $500 for awhile, but gaining $50 isn't worth the risk of it dropping hundreds like it did a few years ago when it went from around $300 to $83 almost overnight). And this time it will NOT come back because Apple is now run by the same types that destroyed it the first time around. Apple has a few more years of profitability based on current products like the iPhone and iPad, but without a visionary to keep the products coming, it's only a matter of time and the stock will start slipping LONG before the profits end (and you don't make a dime when it drops...you lose your shirt and everything else you put into it). Clearly, Bob Mansfield is fully aware of this as the hardware chief and he's taking it to the bank. Kudos to Bob. ;)
Spoken like someone who knows absolutely nothing about SEC regulations.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fhall1 Avatar
160 months ago
It's a good time to cash out. He knows with Steve gone, Apple can only go down in the long run and they're already massively over-valued as it is. They were $83 a share just a few years ago. Over $450 a share? Come on. It would be stupid to invest at that price (and yes there are people at work I know buying it because someone told them it was a $500 stock...yes it might hit $500 for awhile, but gaining $50 isn't worth the risk of it dropping hundreds like it did a few years ago when it went from around $300 to $83 almost overnight). And this time it will NOT come back because Apple is now run by the same types that destroyed it the first time around. Apple has a few more years of profitability based on current products like the iPhone and iPad, but without a visionary to keep the products coming, it's only a matter of time and the stock will start slipping LONG before the profits end (and you don't make a dime when it drops...you lose your shirt and everything else you put into it). Clearly, Bob Mansfield is fully aware of this as the hardware chief and he's taking it to the bank. Kudos to Bob. ;)

Look at Apple's P/E ratio - or pretty much any other comparitive number of stock valuation and compare it to other tech firms....just how do you figure Apple is overvalued? Just because of a high share price? Is Berkshire Hathaway overvalued because the stock sells for $118,500 per share?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GenesisST Avatar
160 months ago
I almost bought a block in 1997.

I bought Netscape instead.

:o

Hindsight is always 20/20, my friend. You probably did the best with the information you had at the time.

Heck, I would've started Facebook in 2002 if I'd known...
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iPad And Calculator App Feature 1

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
macbook pro purple february

Best Buy Introduces Record Low Prices on Apple's M3 MacBook Pro for Members

Thursday April 25, 2024 7:41 am PDT by
Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a...