Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:
UnitedHealth—The health insurer reported fourth quarter profit of $1.55 per share, 5 cents above estimates, with revenue also beating forecasts. The company benefited from an increase in profit margins, and a surge in premium revenue.
Whole Foods—Sterne Agee upgraded the grocer's stock to "buy" from "neutral," calling the bear case against stock "stale" and citing a number of drivers for revenue and customer traffic.
Colgate-Palmolive—UBS downgraded the consumer products maker's shares to "neutral" from "buy" despite strong fundamentals, saying rising macroeconomic and currency related risks may be too difficult to overcome.
CVS Health—Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral," noting potential upside from pharmacy sales growth as well as "underappreciated procurement savings."
AutoNation—Goldman downgraded the auto retailer to "neutral" from "buy," saying there are now fewer short term catalysts for the company than there were when the stock was added to the "buy" list.
Verizon—Barclays cut its rating on Verizon to "equal weight" from "overweight," saying it sees more "tempered" revenue growth.
Fifth Third, U.S. Bancorp—Both regional banks beat estimates on the top and bottom lines: Fifth Third earned an adjusted 43 cents per share, 1 cent above consensus, despite a drop in mortgage revenue, while U.S. Bancorp beat estimates by 2 cents with quarterly profit of 79 cents per share.
Insperity—Starboard Value disclosed a 13.2-percent stake in the human resources outsourcing company, saying it sees a number of opportunities to increase shareholder value.
Lowe's—Morgan Stanley upgraded Lowe's to "overweight" from "equal weight," saying the home improvement chain will benefit from housing market improvement, and that higher interest rates should not prevent home improvement retailers from outperforming.
Wal-Mart—Morgan Stanley downgraded Wal-Mart to "equal weight" from "overweight," saying risk/reward now appears more balanced after a 16-percent increase in the shares over the past three months. The retailer is also launching a service that will allow customers to pick up tax refunds in cash at all stores nationwide.
IBM—Investors are focusing on a lower-than-expected forecast for 2015. IBM did beat estimates for the fourth quarter, earning an adjusted $5.81 per share compared to consensus forecasts of $5.41. Revenue fell short of estimates, however, as did its 2015 earnings forecast of $15.75 to $16.50 per share.
Netflix—Netflix reported an adjusted quarterly profit of 72 cents per share, well above estimates of 45 cents, with revenue in line. The company also added 4.33 million video streaming customers during the quarter, better than its prior forecast.
Advanced Micro Devices—The chip maker reported a breakeven quarter, 1 cent below estimates, with revenue in line. AMD also predicted current quarter revenue about 15 percent below what it reported during 2014's fourth quarter, short of estimates, as it faces "channel headwinds" in the computing and graphics segment.
Cree—Cree earned an adjusted 33 cents per share for its latest quarter, 11 cents above estimates, with revenue also beating consensus. The maker of LED lighting products was helped by expanded profit margins in its lighting business, as well as increasing sales momentum.
Interactive Brokers—The company fell 4 cents short of estimates with adjusted quarterly profit of 2 cents per share, and its revenue was well short of consensus as well. The electronic brokerage firm also said it was unlikely to recoup losses related to the removal of the cap on the value of the Swiss franc.
Bristol-Myers Squibb—The drug maker has named chief operating officer Giovanni Caforio as CEO, effective May 5. He'll succeed Lamberto Andreotti, who will become executive chairman.
Wynn Resorts—CEO Steve Wynn's pay has been cut to $2.5 million annually from $4 million, according to an SEC filing. The casino operator also extended Wynn's contract for two more years until October 2022.
United Continental—The airline may change existing aircraft orders with Boeing to buy more larger 777-300ER jets. The company did not say which jets in its current order it was planning to swap.
Qualcomm—Qualcomm's processors will be dropped from the next version of Samsung's Galaxy smartphone, according to a Bloomberg report.
Toyota—The automaker said it expects a slight drop in vehicle sales for 2015, after new figures showed it retained its world global sales crown in 2014.
21st Century Fox—A U.S. district court judge rejected Fox's claims against Dish Network. Fox had been trying to prevent Dish from selling its "Hopper" DVR device, which lets viewers skip past commercials.
Apple—The company has seen major gains in market share in Asian markets since the introduction of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, according to a report from Counterpoint Research.
Microsoft—The software and services firm will preview more features of its upcoming Windows 10 operating system at an event today to be held at its Redmond, Washington headquarters.
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