In a vacuum where precise numbers do not exist, maybe.
In this real scenario, if someone's goog shares were vesting at an earlier value - let's take a rough average at a glance of goog YTD to be $145, they will have lost on a year's worth of dividends at $0.2 per share. However, the current share price is $175.
So, through this maneuver, a person holding N goog shares will lose at most 3 quarters of dividends: N * 0.2$ * 3 = N * 0.6$
But they will have gained whatever the stock has appreciated, which at this moment in time works out to: N * (175-145)$ = N * 30$
What am I missing which would make the scenario above result in OP's claim of "dividends devalue issued unvested RSUs"?
EDIT: This also fails to take into account "Dividend Equivalents (DEs)", which are not factored above, and would yield extra income to the person that owns unvested shares.
In this real scenario, if someone's goog shares were vesting at an earlier value - let's take a rough average at a glance of goog YTD to be $145, they will have lost on a year's worth of dividends at $0.2 per share. However, the current share price is $175.
So, through this maneuver, a person holding N goog shares will lose at most 3 quarters of dividends: N * 0.2$ * 3 = N * 0.6$
But they will have gained whatever the stock has appreciated, which at this moment in time works out to: N * (175-145)$ = N * 30$
What am I missing which would make the scenario above result in OP's claim of "dividends devalue issued unvested RSUs"?
EDIT: This also fails to take into account "Dividend Equivalents (DEs)", which are not factored above, and would yield extra income to the person that owns unvested shares.