By Theo Francis And Joann S. Lublin 

With the stock market scraping against record highs, big-company CEOs are moving into cash.

Cash compensation for chief executives rose at its fastest rate in at least four years in 2014, swelling to 37.3% of total CEO compensation, higher than it has been since 2010, according to a survey of early proxy filings by the Hay Group for The Wall Street Journal.

The rise in cash pay contrasts with trends just after the financial crisis, when shares had cratered and companies filled out their top officers' pay packages with equity grants.

Executives reaped big gains from those awards as the market recovered. But with big-company shares near record highs, the prospect of further gains looks more limited, and awards of company stock in its various forms have become less attractive.

The resulting shift in compensation in part reflects concern among increasingly vocal shareholders that their investments could be devalued by companies issuing new stock to support big equity awards, compensation consultants said. They also indicate that company insiders--like some investors--are worried the market may be nearing a top.

"When the market may have peaked, those grants are not necessarily going to deliver what is intended," Carol Bowie, head of Americas research for proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., said of equity-based awards.

Overall CEO pay rose more rapidly last year than it has in recent years, according to the Hay Group survey, which looked at 50 companies that posted more than $8.7 billion in revenue and filed their annual proxy statements by early March. Total pay was up by a median 6.9% to $12.2 million, bigger than the 4.3% increase a year earlier.

Shareholders did better, with a total return of 23% in 2014 among the companies that were analyzed.

Proxies that didn't make the survey cutoff continue to trickle in. Discovery Communications Inc. disclosed earlier this month that it paid CEO David Zaslav more than $156 million, much of it for signing a new employment agreement. The Journal will report results of the full survey of CEO compensation at 300 companies in May.

CEO pay packages can be a complex mix of moving parts. Cash typically comes largely from bonuses pegged to annual results and base salaries. Another dollop is sometimes tied to long-term performance measures that typically pay out over three years, provided targets are met.

Cash was the fastest-growing component of pay for the surveyed CEOs last year. Their salaries and annual bonuses rose by a median 7.8%, up sharply from the previous year's 1.2% and a decline in the year before that.

In the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, many companies raised the number of restricted shares or stock options granted to executives, because it took more of that less-valuable stock to hit intended dollar values. Meantime, low exercise prices on the options made them substantially more valuable as the market recovered.

Companies and pay consultants at the time called the equity awards a sign that boards were more serious about tying pay to company performance. But with stock prices hovering near the S&P 500's all-time high of 2117.39 on March 2, cash is back.

Cash pay for Michael McNamara, CEO of electronics company Flextronics International Ltd., more than doubled last year to $3.6 million, just over a quarter of his $13.4 million in total pay. A year earlier, cash made up about 16% of his $10 million total.

Mr. McNamara's salary hasn't changed in seven years, and much of his compensation, including his cash bonus and last year's rise in pay, is tied to performance, Flextronics spokeswoman Renee Brotherton said. The company's stock rose 37% in the year that ended in March 2014, the year for which his pay was set. Counting stock gains since his pay was awarded, the growth of the equity portion of his pay has outstripped the cash portion, she said.

Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger's pay rose $12.2 million last year, to $46.5 million, and nearly all of the gain was in cash. Mr. Iger's bonus jumped to $22.8 million from $13.6 million, a 68% increase. By contrast, his stock and option awards showed little change at a combined $17.3 million.

Disney's proxy says strong operational results drove the increase in Mr. Iger's bonus. Equity awards beyond a minimum level are granted only at the board's discretion, which it hasn't exercised in recent years. Ninety-two percent of Mr. Iger's pay is based on performance, spokesman David Jefferson said.

Cash pay nearly quadrupled to $3.45 million for Mark Durcan, CEO of chip maker Micron Technology Inc., thanks to a 12% raise and a $2.45 million bonus. Cash made up 30% of Mr. Durcan's $11.5 million total pay, up from 13% the prior year and about 22% the year before. Micron recorded annual total shareholder return of 142% as of late August.

Spokesman Daniel Francisco said Micron performed well. He said the jump in cash pay looked bigger because the company had scrapped cash bonuses the prior year--even though executives met performance targets--in recognition of difficult market conditions and risks assumed by acquiring a Japanese competitor that was in bankruptcy.

Companies may have reason to be wary about making big equity awards to their CEOs. Shareholders have pushed back against company proposals to issue more shares for ever-larger stock compensation programs, which often have to be approved in votes at companies' annual meetings.

Their concern is dilution: Big awards reduce investors' percentage stake in the company and spread earnings across more shares. Plus, ISS has revamped how it evaluates equity-pay plans, giving companies a new yardstick for deciding whether to extend them.

"It definitely has gotten harder for companies to get the share allocations that they used to get," said Irv Becker, U.S. leader of board solutions for Hay Group. "Companies pretty much were able to get the equity they wanted to get for a number of years. And the last few years, it's just gotten tougher."

Coca-Cola Co. came under fire a year ago from investors including activist David Winters and billionaire Warren Buffett over what Mr. Buffett called an excessive equity pay plan. Two of Coke's biggest investors took the unusual step of voting against the company's equity pay plan.

The plan nevertheless passed handily, but last fall Coke said it would hand out less stock to employees and provide more information about its equity compensation practices. The company said dilution would remain below 1% a year under the new arrangement. Still, this year, Mr. Winters' investment firm renewed its attack on Coke's pay practices.

Coca-Cola spokesman Petro Kacur said grants of shares under the company's long-term incentive programs shrank this year. The company intends to continue discussing compensation issues with shareholders, he said. CEO Muhtar Kent's equity awards in February this year totaled about $7.7 million in stock and options, down from $15.8 million granted in 2014, the company's proxy said.

Liquefied natural-gas infrastructure company Cheniere Energy Inc. faced vocal opposition from investors over a plan to issue up to 30 million shares as compensation over five years and litigation over its equity pay practices. Cheniere delayed its annual meeting and then withdrew the proposal. The company settled the litigation last month, agreeing to make corporate-governance changes and paying $5.5 million in legal fees.

A spokeswoman for Cheniere declined to comment.

Pay made mostly in cash can also reflect a decision to space out big slugs of equity. Stephen Luczo, CEO of digital storage company Seagate Technology PLC, got virtually all of his pay in cash last year--$2.6 million in salary and bonus. His salary was increased 11%, but overall, his pay was down 87% from the prior year, when he received a larger bonus and $16.5 million in stock and options.

In explaining the year's compensation decisions in Seagate's proxy statement, the company noted that revenue declined 4% and said bonuses were paid out at 81% of their targets. The company said Mr. Luczo didn't receive a long-term incentive award, because last year's awards were intended to apply for two years.

Some of the very highest-paid CEOs on the list flouted the trend. Larry Ellison, head of Oracle Corp. until September, made $67.3 million in his last year as CEO, only $741,385 of it in cash.

Write to Theo Francis at theo.francis@wsj.com and Joann S. Lublin at joann.lublin@wsj.com

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