Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:

Hertz—The car rental giant said it would restate its 2012 and 2013 earnings, as it continues an accounting review. It said its review uncovered material changes that need to be made and that the prior statements can no longer be relied upon. The restatements involve depreciation, doubtful accounts in Brazil, and allowances for uncollectable amounts, among other matters.

Nike—Sterne Agee downgraded Nike to "neutral" from "buy" after the stock exceeded the firm's price target. Stern Agee does say its long-term outlook for Nike remains intact.

Lululemon—Sterne Agee cut its rating on Lululemon to "underperform" from "neutral," saying 2013 saw many damaging events, and adding that the tenure of the new CEO has been so far uninspiring.

Baker Hughes—The oilfield services provider confirmed that it is in preliminary merger talks with rival Halliburton. Halliburton declined to comment on the discussions.

Applied Materials—The company reported an adjusted fiscal fourth quarter profit of 27 cents per share, matching estimates, with revenue also in line. However, the chip equipment maker's current quarter outlook is short of analyst forecasts. CEO Gary Dickerson did make optimistic comments about the longer term, saying he expects approval early in 2015 for the company's agreement to buy rival Tokyo Electron.

Nordstrom—The retailer beat estimates by 2 cents with quarterly profit of 73 cents per share, with revenue also above estimates, and reported a same-store sales rise of 3.9 percent compared to a year ago. The retailer, however, cut its full-year outlook after factoring the impact of its Trunk Club acquisition.

Abercrombie & Fitch—Credit Suisse downgraded the retailer's stock from "outperform" to "neutral," saying Abercrombie's moves to improve its business may not be enough to overcome competitive pressures in the teen retail sector.

TJX and Ross Stores—Canaccord downgraded the two retail stocks to "sell" from "hold." The firm said current estimates for Ross are too high, and that TJX is trading well above historic multiples, a level Canaccord feels is unwarranted.

Harley-Davidson—Goldman Sachs upgraded the motorcycle maker's shares to "buy" from "neutral," citing expected growth driven by new product introductions.

Energizer—Wells Fargo downgraded the battery maker's stock to "market perform" from "outperform," saying the sale of Duracell by Procter & Gamble to Berkshire Hathaway implies a lower valuation for the business, not higher.

Biogen Idec—Citi removed the drug maker's stock from its "most preferred pharma" list, pointing to its bearish outlook for Biogen's multiple sclerosis treatment "anti-LINGO," as well as headwinds from patent litigation.

Oracle and SAP—SAP settled a long-standing copyright infringement lawsuit, with SAP paying $356.7 million to Oracle. The suit involved allegedly improper downloads of Oracle software by SAP.

Bank of NY Mellon, PepsiCo and DuPont—Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management increase its holdings in those companies, according to a new SEC filing.

Starbucks—The coffee chain may have struck an illegal tax deal with Dutch authorities, according to European Union antitrust regulators.

Royal Bank of Scotland—The bank will exit its U.S. mortgage business, after originally planning only to scale it back.

Geron—The drug maker licensed its cancer compound to Johnson & Johnson for up to $935 million. The treatment was the last one in Geron's product pipeline.

Boston Scientific—The maker of medical devices was ordered to pay four women $26.7 million after being found liable for selling faulty devices designed to treat urinary incontinence.

Herbalife—Board member Pedro Cardoso is among those charged in a long-running Brazilian fraud case. The nutrition products company said it first became aware of the situation this week, and that Cardoso told Herbalife he had only just learned of the charges.