Apple tops in cap growth, bottom in CEO pay

Here's an interesting pair of lists.

On Seeking Alpha, Birinyi Associates' Cleve Rueckert lists the 40 S&P 500 stocks with the largest changes in market capitalization so far this year. Although other shares have scored higher percentage gains -- some more than 100% -- Apple (AAPL) tops this list on a total dollar value basis. Since Dec. 31, 2008, its shares have grown 35.9%, adding more than $27 billion to its market cap.

Meanwhile, the New York Times has published an eye-opening ranking of the pay of chief executives at 198 U.S. companies. The list, compiled by Equilar, is especially interesting because it posts, right next to the CEO's total compensation, his or her company's performance in terms of revenue, profit change and total return.

On this list, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, with his $1-a-year salary, comes in at the bottom, tied for last place with Richard Kinder, CEO of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP).

By contrast, Motorola's (MOT) Sanjay Jha took home $104.4 million in salary, bonus, perks, stocks and options in 2008 even as his company's delivered a -71% return on investment. He's followed on the NY Times list by Oracle's (ORCL) Larry Ellison ($84.6 million), Walt Disney's (DIS) Robert Iger ($51.1 million) and American Express' (AXP) Kenneth Chenault ($42.8 million).

At the bottom of Cleve Rueckert S&P 500 list is Exxon Mobil (XOM), which dropped nearly $58 billion in market cap last year, although its stock has only fallen 11.76% since Dec. 31. That pales next to Citi's (C) 57.53% decline, Aflac's (AFL) 54.08% and Bank of America's (BAC) 46.02%.

Market capitalization, a measure of a company's size, is calculated by mutiplying share price times the number of shares. Apple closed Monday at $118.45 with 890.55 million shares outstanding, for a total market cap of $105.5 billion.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @ philiped]