Tim Cook Passes First Year as Apple (AAPL) CEO; How Has He Fared?

Tim Cook has officially been at the helm of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) for one year as of today. So, happy anniversary Tim!

How has Apple fared since Cook took the reins last August? On August 23rd, the day before news broke, Apple closed at $372. Today, shares are up over 78 percent to $662.63, recently hitting a record high at $674.88.

That's not too bad, we suppose.

For comparison, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is up 30.5 percent over the same span, despite having a dominant position in global smartphone reach, while Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is up just under 26 percent.

During Cook's tenure, Apple has:

• Shipped 109.5 million iPhones, 47.6 million iPads, 18.1 million Macs, and billions upon billons of market cap;
  
  
• Declared its first dividend since 1995 and it was a hefty one. The dividend is $2.65 per share, or $10.60 annualized;
  
  
• Made huge headway in China;
  
  
• Killed the PC, Nokia, RIM and others
  
  
• Become the most valuable company - ever.

Nice job Mr. Cook. Nice job indeed.

Despite the anniversary, Apple shares are indicated lower Friday following a South Korean court ruling over the iPhone 4 and Samsung's Galaxy S II.

(Since the modern first-anniversary gift is a clock, we've included an image of an apple clock.)

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