Edible Apple

With Apple’s stock price currently trading at all-time highs, two of Apple’s senior executives thought it’d be a good time to cash in their stock options while the gettins’ good.

Writing for BrainstormTech, Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports that Apple COO Tim Cook recently sold 300,000 shares of Apple stock at prices ranging from $226.9 to $230.7. When the dust settled, Cook cleared a cool $68.8 million, of which $32 million will go towards paying the tax man.

Cook was originally granted said share options back in December of 2005 when Apple’s share price was $72.01. That’s over a 200% return in just 4+ years, not too shabby.

Meanwhile, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer and Apple retail guru Ron Johnson both sold 200,000 shares clearing $45.98 million each. Meanwhile, Apple Senior VP of Marketing Phil Schiller sold 150,000 shares, taking home $34.47 million before taxes.

Overall, it’s certainly been a good year for Tim Cook. Just a few weeks ago we reported that the Apple board awarded Cook a $5 million bonus in addition to 75,000 in Apple stock as a gesture of thanks for Cook’s role in leading Apple as interim CEO while Steve Jobs was recovering from a liver transplant in early 2009.

At the time of this writing, AAPL is trading at $231.95, marking a new intraday high for Apple.