Stocks to Watch: Salesforce.com, Autodesk

Updated from 7:35 a.m. ET to include information on Apple, IBM, Aruba Networks.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- These stocks were making headlines ahead of Friday's opening bell:

Apple(AAPL) :

Apple shares were tracking lower in pre-market action, pulling back after hitting an all-time high of $674.88 earlier in the week.

Friday's Apple news included blog speculation that the company won't be unveiling the iPad Mini at its much-anticipated product event in mid-September where the iPhone 5 is expected to be launched.

In addition, this also the one-year anniversary of the company naming Tim Cook to replace Steve Jobs as its chief executive officer.

The stock was last quoted at $659.02, down 0.54%, in pre-market action, according to Nasdaq.com.

IBM(IBM) :

JPMorgan lowered its 12-month price target on IBM to $215 from $218 and cut its earnings estimates slightly early Friday; although the firm left its overweight rating on the Dow component's stock intact.

"The drivers are 1) signs of demand softness in EMEA and China and 2) the sale of the Retail Solutions business to Toshiba," JPMorgan said. "In our view, China is the incremental weak spot. Despite our downward revisions, we are sticking with our Overweight rating on IBM. We think the model's supertanker status remains intact and should be attractive to investors as de-risking increases. We expect investors to de-risk and build bigger positions in defensive stocks, pending sustained improvements in China-based demand. Our top picks to play defense are Apple, EMC, IBM, and NetApp."

IBM's stock closed Thursday at $195.70, up nearly 16% so far in 2012.

Aruba Networks(ARUN) :

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based firm, which makes equipment for telecom networks, saw its sales rise 22% to $139.2 million for the three-month period ending in July. Excluding items, Aruba earned 18 cents a share in the quarter, up from 17 cents a share in the prior year's quarter.

Analysts were looking for sales of $136.8 million and earnings of 17 cents a share in Aruba's fiscal fourth quarter.

The stock was jumping more than 14% ahead of the bell to $19.31 on volume of more than 100,000.

Salesforce.com(CRM) :

Shares of the San Francisco-based cloud computing company were under pressure after its outlook for its fiscal third quarter was slightly below Wall Street's expectations.