Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:
Verizon—Berkshire Hathaway, Third Point, and Paulson & Co. all added new stakes in the company, according to their latest 13F filings.
J.C. Penney–J.C. Penney posted a first quarter loss of $1.16 per share, smaller than the $1.25 loss that had been forecast by analysts. The retailer's revenues also beat estimates, and comparable store sales rose by 6.2 percent.
Novo Nordisk–The Danish drug company said a trial involving an experimental obesity drug showed an eight percent weight loss in a year, compared with a 2.6 percent loss for patients treated with a placebo.
Abbott Labs–Abbott is buying Latin American drug maker CFR Pharmaceuticals for $2.9 billion.
Nordstrom—The upscale retailer beat estimates by four cents with first quarter earnings of 72 cents per share, with same store sales increasing by 3.3 percent. Nordstrom also said it would seek a partner for its credit card receivables, currently totaling about $2 billion.
WWE–The wrestling giant has reached a new long-term television deal with Comcast's NBCUniversal, parent of CNBC. The provider of wrestling programs air on a variety of NBCU cable channels, including USA Network, SyFy, and E!. The shares are tumbling in pre-market trading, with analysts at Benchmark saying the deal give limited visibility on whether the company's WWE network will be successful.
Dillard's–The retailer earned $2.56 per share for the first quarter, beating estimates by 15 cents, though revenue came up short.
Chesapeake Energy–The company said it plans to raise more than $4 billion from asset sales and divestitures this year.
Digital Cinema Destinations–The small movie theater chain, known as Digiplex, is being acquired by Carmike Cinemas in a $45 million stock deal.
Union Pacific–Union Pacific announced a two-for-one stock split, and the rail operator also increased its planned capital expenditures for 2014 by $150 million to $4.1 billion.
Boeing–The aerospace giant committed unfair labor practices against unionized engineers in 2012, according to a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board. The ruling stems from Boeing photographing and videotaping workplace rallies in Seattle and Portland.
Pfizer–The drug maker is facing new opposition in its bid to buy AstraZeneca with Swedish officials now saying shareholders should reject the bid. AstraZeneca is based in the U.K., but has roots in Sweden, having been formed by the merger of Sweden's Astra and Britain's Zeneca Group in 1999.
Adobe Systems– Adobe is working to fix its Creative Cloud suite, with customers having been unable to log in to access the suite's products. Adobe said it had identified the cause of the disruption but has not yet estimated when service might be returned to normal.
Rackspace Hosting–The web hosting company has hired Morgan Stanley to help it evaluate buyout overtures that it has received from multiple parties, as well as other strategic options. Rackspace said no decision has yet been made on any of those alternatives.
—By CNBC's Peter Schacknow
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