Dividend, book it. Major shareholders are probably getting antsy about it. Just an example, if they paid out $50bn in a one time divvy, Fidelity would get around $2.6 billion.
And the value of Fidelity's Apple stock would go down by $2.6 billion. The $100 billion in cash is currently factored into the share price. Dispurse the cash and the market will discount the share price to match. Personally I'm hoping for something more interesting than a special dividend. It does seem strange to have the announcement before the trading day begins though. I would think any big announcement would come…
That's not what happened with Microsoft did a one-time dividend of $30bn. On July 19th, 2004, their stock price was 27.94. They announced it on July 20, 2004. The stock closed on 28.86 on July 21. The stock ran up to almost $30, and the day of the dividend dropped to 27.39.
On July 19th, their value was $301.7bn
On November 15th, it was $297.8bn.
(Numbers computed by Wolfram Alpha.. kaching!)
Believe it or not, there is value in ongoing dividends that makes "Fidelity's Apple stock would go down by $2.6" incorrect. Income funds, for example, would not buy Apple right now because it's not a "yield" stock. If they pay a dividend, those funds can then buy it under their prospectus. This opens up the overall pool of buyers for the stock and can stabilize and even raise the value over time.
(edit: formatting)