Stock picking services like Motley Fool's Stock Advisor and Seeking Alpha's Alpha Picks can make it easy to find outperforming stocks without spending hours searching. It's a great way to create a new portfolio or to find new stocks to add to your existing portfolio.
Both Stock Advisor and Alpha Picks have strong track records, and both offer two new stock picks every month. While they have a lot in common, there are also important differences in the types of stocks they recommend.
In this Motley Fool Stock Advisor vs. Seek Alpha Alpha Picks comparison, we'll help you decide which of these services is best for you.
About Stock Advisor and Alpha Picks
Stock Advisor is the Motley Fool's leading stock picking service. It was launched in 2002 and today has more than 750,000 members. Stock Advisor is known for recommending long-term explosive growth stocks like Amazon, Netflix, and Tesla in the early days of each of these companies.
Alpha Picks is a much newer stock recommendation service than Seeking Alpha. It was launched in 2022 and targets active investors more than long-term investors.
Stock Advisor vs Alpha Picks: An Investing Style
Stock Advisor and Alpha Picks are very different in the way they approach investing.
Stock Advisor is designed for long-term growth investors. The service focuses on explosive growth stocks that have very high long-term potential. The stock advisor intends to hold all picks for at least five years, and some picks are in the portfolio for 20 years.
Alpha Picks takes a more active approach to investing. The investment horizon for picks is about one year, although successful picks may be held for up to several years. Alpha Picks typically looks for momentum stocks that are outperforming peers in their sectors.
Neither service is limited to investing in specific market sectors. In practice, though, Stock Advisor's focus on growth stocks means its portfolio tends to be tech-heavy. The Alpha Picks portfolio contains stocks in a wide range of market sectors as service analysts look for different areas of the economy that are seeing strong momentum.
Stock Advisor vs Alpha Picks: Recommendation Format
Both Stock Advisor and Alpha Picks offer two new stock picks each month, about two weeks apart. All recommendations are provided by human analysts, not by algorithms.
The picks in each service are set up so that you can simply buy recommended stocks without worrying about entry prices. Neither Stock Advisor nor Alpha Picks provide take-profit or stop-loss targets with their picks. It is relatively rare to see underperforming stocks dropped from a Stock Advisor portfolio, while Alpha Picks is more willing to recommend selling stocks that have not lived up to expectations during their first few months in the portfolio.
Recommendations from Stock Advisor and Alpha Picks come with short research reports. For Stock Advisor, research reports focus on why a company is poised to grow, typically looking at intangibles like the quality of the leadership team or the company's competitive moat. For Alpha Picks, research reports rely more on fundamental data and pull financial metrics from the Seeking Alpha research platform.
Stock Advisor vs Alpha Picks: Additional Tools
Both Stock Advisor and Alpha Picks include tools to help you decide which stocks to buy among the new picks.
In Stock Advisor, you will have access to two menus. This list of foundation stocks includes 10 growth stocks that Motley Fool analysts think every long-term investor should own. The ranking list is updated monthly and highlights the top 10 stocks already in the portfolio for investors to double down on.
At Alpha Picks, each stock in the portfolio is rated as a “Strong Buy,” “Buy,” or “Hold.” If you have extra money to invest, you can consider any of the strong buy stocks as good options.
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Stock Advisor vs. Alpha Picks: Performance
Since its launch in 2002, Stock Advisor has had a very strong track record. Service returned 655% as of March 2024 compared to 150% for the S&P 500.
Launched in 2022, Alpha Picks returned 127% as of March 2024 compared to 35% for the S&P 500.
Obviously, both of these services have historically outperformed the S&P 500. Stock Advisor's longer track record is notable because the portfolio has been through both the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Seeking Alpha portfolio has not had to face any major market disruptions yet.
Stock Advisor vs Alpha Picks: Pricing
Stock Advisor costs $199 per year, while Alpha Picks costs $499 per year. Neither service offers a free trial, but Stock Advisor comes with a 30-day membership fee refund guarantee.
What is the best service?
Stock Advisor and Alpha Picks are both premium stock recommendation services. Both have beaten the market and both are very easy for time-strapped investors to follow.
If you have the money, it's worth considering using both services. A stock advisor can help you build a long-term growth portfolio, while Alpha Picks can help you make more active investments for short-term capital turnover. There's not much overlap between the two services' choices, so having access to both also gives you a wider range of stocks to choose from.
If you had to choose one or the other, the choice may depend largely on how hands-off you want your wallet to be and how much you want to spend. Stock Advisor is relatively inexpensive and allows you to buy a stock and then forget about it for years. With Alpha Picks, you'll need to be a little more involved to keep up with portfolio sale alerts every few months.
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Alternatives to Stock Advisor and Alpha Picks
It's worth noting that neither Stock Advisor nor Alpha Picks pay much attention to value investing. Both platforms routinely invest in stocks with high P/E ratios following the theory that it is worth buying expensive stocks if they have room to run.
If you're more interested in value investing, you might consider an alternative stock picking service like Stanberry's Investment Advisory. Another option is to use a value-focused research service like Zacks Premium or Old School Value. While these platforms require a little more research on your own, they also have lists of recommended stocks to help you get started.
Conclusion: Motley Fool Stock Advisor vs. Seeking Alpha Picks
Motley Fool Stock Advisor and Seeking Alpha Alpha Picks are excellent stock picking services for investors who want help finding stocks that are outperforming the market. Stock Advisor focuses on growth stocks with an investment horizon of five years or longer, while Alpha Picks focuses on momentum stocks with an investment horizon of one year. Using both services together can be an effective way to build a more diversified portfolio for growth and momentum.
For more details on these services, see our Stock Advisor review and Alpha Picks review.
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