While Fools should generally take the opinion of Wall Street with a grain of salt, it's not a bad idea to take a closer look at particularly stock-shaking upgrades and downgrades -- just in case their reasoning behind the call makes sense.
What: Shares of Clorox (CLX -0.47%) slipped as low as 2.5% this morning after Morgan Stanley downgraded the cleaning products giant from equal-weight to underweight.
So what: Along with the downgrade, analyst Dara Mohsenian planted a price target of $83 on the stock, representing about 3% worth of downside to yesterday's close. While value investors might be attracted to Clorox's slumping stock price over the past six months, Mohsenian believes that the upside remains limited given the short-term headwinds working against the company.
Now what: According to Morgan Stanley, Clorox's risk/reward trade-off at the current levels isn't exactly favorable. "Slowing US consumer spending and heightened competitive pressure create near-term EPS risk that we think is not reflected in valuation, particularly as CLX's LT EPS growth potential is more muted than peers'," noted Morgan Stanley. However, with the stock now off more than 5% from its 52-week highs and boasting a 3.5% dividend yield, that short-term concern might be an opportunity for patient income investors to pounce on.
