Netflix (NFLX) shares have tripled over the past year to nearly $125 -- and chief executive Reed Hastings is reaping the rewards.

Hastings has sold 5,000 or 10,000 shares of company stock every week for seven years, the New York Post reports. With shares on fire this year, Hastings has received $31 million from the sales so far.

If shares can sustain their momentum, Hastings may get close to $60 million for all of 2010, writes Claire Atkinson. That's more than the $43 million received in 2009 by Leslie Moonves, the CEO of CBS(CBS).

Last week alone, Atkinson writes, Hastings sold 10,000 shares at $124.16 each. Since 2,500 of those shares were options exercised at $1.50 each, the overall profit from the sale was $1.24 million. Post continues after video:
Not a bad week for the 49-year-old Netflix founder. Hastings, which the Post reports is a married father of two, will get a salary of $500,000 this year. That's a 50% cut from 2009, but I don't think he's complaining.

I wonder if Hastings' payday is any sweeter with the knowledge that Netflix was instrumental in driving Blockbuster nearly to the brink of bankruptcy.

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