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Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:
Tesla — CEO Elon Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission were told by a judge to work out their differences over the next two weeks. The SEC had attempted to hold Musk in contempt of court for his recent tweets about Tesla production levels, saying they had violated a prior settlement.
Amazon.com — Amazon is making a dent in Alphabet unit Google’s ad search dominance, according to The Wall Street Journal. People familiar with the matter told the paper WPP Group, the world’s largest ad buyer, spent about $300 million on Amazon search ads last year, with 75 percent of that money coming from Google search budgets.
Johnson & Johnson, Teva Pharmaceutical — Oklahoma’s attorney general has dropped all but one claim against J&J and Teva in a case charging the two companies with helping spark the U.S. opioid epidemic.
Boston Beer — Boston Beer was downgraded to “sell” from “neutral” at Goldman Sachs, reflecting Goldman’s concerns about decelerating sales growth at the brewer of Sam Adams beer.
Bed Bath & Beyond — The housewares retailer was upgraded to “equal-weight” from “underweight” at Morgan Stanley, which said that activist intervention at the company poses a risk to its negative thesis.
Meredith Corp. — The magazine publisher said its auditor KPMG found material weakness in accounting related to Meredith’s acquisition of Time Inc. in January 2018. The issue relates to the process used to calculate the value of Time Inc.’s accounts receivable and accounts payable.
Viacom — Viacom was upgraded to “outperform” from “sector perform” at RBC Capital, which thinks Viacom’s recent pact with DirecTV on carrying its programming will pave the way for merger talks with CBS.
Duluth Holdings — Duluth reported quarterly profit of 64 cents per share, missing estimates by 11 cents a share. The parent of Duluth Trading also seeing revenue come in shy of Street forecasts. The maker of casual wear and accessories said inventory misalignment drove up expenses, and that it still has not come out of the sluggishness it saw in the fourth quarter.
Constellation Brands — Deutsche Bank downgraded the spirits and beer maker to “hold” from “buy,” following Thursday’s rally for the stock. Deutsche Bank said the risk/reward profile for Constellation is now balanced, with current valuation pricing in its base case fundamentals.
Intel — Wells Fargo downgrade the chipmaker’s stock to “market perform” from “outperform,” reflecting both Intel’s current valuation as well as a more cautious view on current semiconductor demand.
Lennar — The home builder was added to the “Focus List” at J.P. Morgan Securities, which rates the stock “overweight” and said there is potential on multiple fronts for Lennar to grow earnings.
