Does IBM's CEO Deserve Her $4.5 Million Bonus?

International Business Machines Corp. IBM’s stock is down 19.4 percent in the past year and more than 30 percent in the past two years. While you might think CEO Virginia "Ginni" Rometty is taking some heat for the stock’s performance, she’s actually taking up to a $4.5 million bonus for 2015 and an 11 percent pay raise.

According to the company’s latest filings, Rometty will earn a base salary of $1.6 million in 2015, up from $1.5 million in 2014. In addition, she will be issued $13.3 million in restricted stock compared to the $12.75 million in stock she received last year.

If Rometty earns her full bonus, she will take home a total of $19.9 million in 2015, up 11 percent from her 2014 total of $17.9 million.

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Many suffering shareholders are likely not pleased with the company’s generosity toward Rometty, who announced last year that IBM would be abandoning its push to achieve $20 EPS by 2015.

Only time will tell if Rometty’s push to turn around IBM’s business by trimming low-margin and unprofitable business segments and investing heavily in cloud computing will ultimately pay off in the end or if it's too little too late to save IBM.

Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.