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Are you wondering if it is worth paying for Seeking Alpha Premium?
Are Seeking Alpha’s ratings and stock analysis reliable?
Can it help find good investment opportunities and achieve better-than-average returns?
Lastly, how does Seeking Alpha Premium compare with its alternatives such as Motley Fool, Stock Rover, and Simply Wall Street?
What I Like About Seeking Alpha Premium
Seeking Alpha Premium provides powerful investment tools and in-depth stock analysis to help me with the following:
- Discover NEW & LATEST best investment ideas
- Research stock ideas
- Track and monitor stocks
- Manage portfolio
As a Premium user, I get full access to every article and leverage the expertise of thousands of investment experts, on every stock.
With 300+ articles published daily, Seeking Alpha’s stock coverage is one of the best in the market right now.
I can also easily check the author’s track record before considering their advice! (Seeking Alpha Premium charts the performance of the author’s every call)
For each article, I can also find the latest Seeking Alpha Premium ratings on the stock:
- SA Author Ratings ‒ ranging from Strong Buy to Strong Sell
- Wall Street Ratings – consensus and price targets on the stock by Wall Street Analysts
- Quant Ratings ‒ based on over 100 metrics, updated daily
The most interesting of all is its proprietary Quant rating.
It was developed by CressCap, quantitative analytics and data platform that was acquired by Seeking Alpha.
So, what exactly is Quant Rating, and also how does it work?
Quant rating is derived by comparing over 100 metrics for the stock to the same metrics for the other stocks in its sector.
These metrics include the company’s financial data, stock price performance, and analysts’ estimates of future revenue and earnings.
There are five types of Quant ratings:
- Strong Sell (i.e. a score of 1)
- Sell (i.e. a score of 2)
- Hold (i.e. a score of 3)
- Buy (i.e. a score of 4)
- Strong Buy (i.e. a score of 5)
The advantage of this method is that you can use Quant Rating to find the best performer of any particular industry or sector.
So, how exactly is Quant Rating calculated?
Quant Rating is derived after taking into account the following five “Factor Grades”:
- Value
- Growth
- Profitability
- Momentum
- EPS Revisions
The Factor Grade is determined by comparing the relevant metrics for the factor for the stock to those for the other stocks in the same sector.
For example, to determine the grade for the “Growth” factor, metrics such as past sales growth, projected earnings growth, and stock price performance for the stock will be compared to the same metrics for the other stocks in the same sector.
Then, each factor is assigned a grade, from A+ to F.
Grade A+ means that the stock has the highest growth potential compared to its peers in the same sector.
On the other hand, a grade of F means that the stock has the lowest growth potential compared to its peers in the same sector.
So, how do I use Seeking Alpha’s Factor Grades?
The value, growth, and profitability grades give me a snapshot of the stock’s fundamentals, while the momentum and EPS revisions grades tell me if the stock is gaining momentum.
So, if I am looking for value stocks, I just filter out all the stocks with a “Value” Grade of A or A+.
After that, I further research and analyze these value stocks one by one.
The advantage of Factor Grade is that I get a very quick idea of what type of stock it is. (e.g. a value stock? a growth stock? momentum stock?)
Apart from ratings, I can also get tons of useful financial and fundamental information (i.e. Earnings, Valuation, Growth, Profitability, Peers, Dividend, etc) and news and analysis on the stocks I’m researching or stocks that I own in my portfolio all in one place.
Let’s use Apple as an example to go through the stock research and analysis tools inside Seeking Alpha Premium.
Under “Summary”, I can quickly get a rough idea of how the stock is ranked in terms of “Valuation”, “Growth”, “Profitability”, “Momentum” and “Earnings Revision”.
I also get to read what Seeking Alpha authors think about Apple.
If I am thinking about buying “Apple”, I would especially want to read the analysis by Seeking Alpha contributors who rate Apple as ” Sell” or ” Strong Sell”.
I noticed that the “Valuation” grade for Apple is “F”.
So, I want to dig a bit deeper to find out why.
Going through the financial ratios, I can see that its P/E, PEG, and EV/Sales are all higher than the sector median and also higher than its 5-year average.
If I want to look at other stocks that are similar to Apple, I can simply click “Peers”.
If the stock I am researching is a dividend stock, I can use Seeking Alpha to easily find out about “Dividend Yield”, “Dividend Safety”, “Dividend Growth”, “Dividend Estimates” and “Dividend History”.
Basically, I get everything all in one place.
It saves a lot of time, especially when I have other commitments.
Another thing that I like about Seeking Alpha is that it makes it very easy for me to find all the “fastest growing growth stocks”, “top value stocks”, “top technology stocks”, “top dividend stocks”, “top yield monsters”, “top small-cap stocks” and “top REITs.
This is because it provides a pre-filtered stock list (updated daily) for each category.
So, regardless of what type of investor or investment style you are, you can always find investment ideas that are suitable for you.
Lastly, one of my favorite places to find good stock ideas is Seeking Alpha’s “Top-Rated Stocks”.
So, how does Seeking Alpha determine its Top-Rated Stocks?
Every day, it publishes the list of stocks that earn top ratings from Seeking Alpha authors, Wall Street analysts, and its proprietary Quant System.
Personally, I think that just this list of Top-Rated Stocks is like a gold mine that could potentially help me increase my investment returns significantly.
For example, below are just some examples of the Seeking Alpha “Strong Buy” stocks.
Abercrombie & Fitch Co was rated “Strong Buy” in May 2023 and remained a “Strong Buy” until now.
It has gone up by almost 300% in less than a year.
Powell Industries was rated a “Strong Buy” in March 2023 when its share price was $42.59 and remained a “Strong Buy” until Feb 2024 when its share price reached around $161.
In less than a year, it went up by almost 300%.
Modine Manufacturing Company was rated a “Strong Buy” in June 2023 when its share price was around $30.
Then, it remained a “Strong Buy” until March 2024 when its share price reached about $101.
So, in less than 9 months, it went up by more than 200%.
So, how have Seeking Alpha’s Strong Buy Recommendations compared against the S&P 500?
Do take note that the performance is based on backtesting.
From 2010 to March 2024 (as of my writing), Seeking Alpha Strong Buy achieved a total return of $245,380 based on $10,000 in investment capital while the S&P 500 achieved a total return of $51,032.
Seeking Alpha Premium’s Top Rated Stocks routinely turns up opportunities that you probably won’t hear of anywhere else yet.
For example, the Seeking Alpha contributors cover the under-the-radar small caps and IPOs.
With hundreds of contributors, I can expect to find hidden gems that are not covered by the mainstream media or Wall Street analysts.
That’s also why I love to read their analysis, especially if there are two opposing camps of view on the same stock.
Why?
I get to understand ALL the potential risks involved in the stock and evaluate if it’s worth the risks to invest in it.
On top of that, they would sometimes analyze certain aspects of the company’s business in a way that I would never have thought of because they have done in-depth research.
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What I Wish Seeking Alpha Could Have
I am currently using Seeking Alpha to get stock ideas and research and analyze stocks.
Although I find it very useful, I wish Seeking Alpha could consider adding a few features or tools that I also use regularly.
For example, I invest in international stock markets such as the Australian, Singapore, and Hong Kong markets, but Seeking Alpha only covers US-listed stocks.
So, I have to go elsewhere (e.g. koyfin) to research my international stocks.
But, if you are only investing in the US markets, it would not be a problem for you.
Another tool that I would really want to see is the Insider Transaction data for US stocks.
For me, I have a specially curated watchlist for all the stocks with huge Insider Buys.
Corporate Insiders are the only ones who know what is really going on in the company and whether or not the company is doing well financially.
During the last quarter of 2023, several biotech company insiders (e.g. NUVB, IOVA, DSGN, and SPRY) bought millions worth of their company stocks
In the next 6 months, all these stocks went up substantially.
Right now, I have to get this data elsewhere (such as Benzinga).
Seeking Alpha Premium Vs Seeking Alpha Pro
Next, what is the difference between Seeking Alpha Premium and Seeking Alpha Pro?
With Seeking Alpha Premium, you get access to the following:
- Unlimited Access to Premium Investing Ideas
- Screen for Top Rated Stocks with a rating screener
- Stock Quant Rating
- Seeking Alpha Author Rating
- Seeking Alpha Author Performance
- Wall Street Rating
- Stock Dividend Grades
- View or download 10 years of company financials
- Sync your stock broker portfolio with Seeking Alpha
- See stock dividend & earnings forecasts
- Access all stock earnings transcripts
- Get alerts on upgrades & downgrades on the portfolio
- Build and manage a portfolio of stocks or ETFs
If you subscribe to Seeking Alpha Pro, you get everything included in the Seeking Alpha Premium plus more.
For example, you will get the Seeking Alpha Pro newsletter, timely trading alerts, and executive interviews.
On top of that, you will also get exclusive access to Seeking Alpha Pro Top ideas which are hand-picked high-conviction investments by the Seeking Alpha Pro editorial team.
If you are a seasoned trader or investor who places bearish trades, you would love the Seeking Alpha Pro short ideas portal.
There is also a Seeking Alpha Pro stock screener that allows you to filter investment ideas by long, short, market cap, investment style, sector, and country. Then, you can sort the ideas by specific qualifiers such as growth, value, and so on.
Is Seeking Alpha Pro for everyone?
Personally, I think Seeking Alpha Pro is more suited for fund managers.
For most investors and traders, Seeking Alpha Premium is good enough.
Seeking Alpha Pricing
Currently, there are three types of pricing plans:
- Basic: Free
- Seeking Alpha Premium:
$239/year$214/year - Seeking Alpha Pro: $2,400 per year (this is more for professional traders)
With the basic free version, you can only get very limited access to Seeking Alpha stock in-depth news and analysis.
You also won’t get access to Seeking Alpha Author Rating and Quant Rating, Top-rated stocks, and all the premium stock analysis.
So, is it worth paying for Seeking Alpha Premium?
$189/year works out to be about $15.75/month (or $0.52/day).
An average Starbucks drink is about $2.75.
So, it’s very affordably priced.
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Seeking Alpha Premium Vs Motley Fool
Now, let’s compare Seeking Alpha Premium with Motley Fool.
The key difference between Seeking Alpha Premium and Motley Fool is that Motley Fool gives you specific stock recommendations every month while Seeking Alpha Premium is a powerful stock research and analysis platform that you can use to help you find good investment ideas as well as research your stocks.
Motley Fool has been around for almost 30 years with a proven track record.
Below is the performance comparison between Motley Fool Stock Advisor and S&P 500 between 2002 and 26th June 2024.
As of 26 June 2024, average Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendations have returned over 756% since inception while the S&P 500 has returned 161%.
In short, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor has outperformed the market 4 to 1.
But, what about its individual stock picks?
This metric is important because I might not be buying every single stock recommendation made by the Motley Fool Stock Advisor.
Below is a table that shows you the performance of individual stock picks over the years.
As of 6th September 2023, Motley Fool Stock Advisor has had 173 stock recommendations with 100%+ returns.
[Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Individual investment results may vary. All investing involves risk of loss.]
Will the Motley Fool Stock Advisor always be right about their stock recommendations?
No, because no one can be right about their stock picks 100% of the time.
Let me sidetrack a bit here.
If any stock picking service tells you that they have a close to 100% success rate on their stock picks and can guarantee you high investment returns, you should definitely stay away.
Even Warren Buffet has loss-making stocks in his portfolio, but he still achieves above-average returns because a few big gainers in the portfolio can make up for the under-performers.
What I like about the Motley Fool Stock Advisor is that they are very open and transparent about their bad investments.
As a member, I can see the performance of ALL its past and current stock recommendations (even for closed positions).
Some other stock-picking services that I’ve tried, don’t publish the performance of all their past and current stock recommendations, so it’s not easy for you to find out their true track record.
If you are thinking of getting into stock investing, I highly recommend the Motley Fool Stock Advisor because I think there are a lot of well-researched stock recommendations with long-term growth potential.
So, how much does Motley Fool Stock Advisor cost?
Its annual membership is priced at $199 a year.
Right now, there’s a special limited-time 50% OFF offer on the annual membership for new members when you click the link here to try it out for 30 days with a Membership-Fee-Back Guarantee.
For $99 a year- that’s just $1.70 a week – you can gain unlimited access to their library of expert stock recommendations which are carefully selected to help you grow your wealth.
Motley Fool Stock Advisor is good for passive investors who don’t have time to do their own research and plan to invest in the stocks for the long term.
However, if you are an active investor who prefers to do your own research, then I would recommend Seeking Alpha Premium.
Seeking Alpha Premium Vs Simply Wall St
Now, how does Seeking Alpha Premium compare with Simply Wall St?
Which is better for you?
Both Seeking Alpha Premium and Simply Wall St are stock research and analysis platforms.
All the stock analysis reports by Simply Wall St are generated automatically in the same format, using data pulled from company financials as well as analysts’ revenue estimates.
There are a total of 10 sections in the stock report:
- Executive Summary
- Share Price & News
- Valuation
- Future Growth (i.e. future revenue and earnings estimate by analysts)
- Past Performance
- Financial Health (i.e. financial ratios such as debt to equity ratio)
- Dividend
- Management
- Ownership
- Company Information
Personally, I think that only the “Valuation” and “Future Growth” sections might be of some value to you in helping you make an investment decision.
In all the other sections (e.g. “Share Price & News”, “Past Performance”, “Dividend”, “Ownership”, etc), you can easily get the same information for free online.
So, after going through everything, you can see that the main advantage of using Simply Wall St is that basic financial data and ratios are presented to you in an easy-to-read graphical format.
If you are a new investor, you might find this format very beginner-friendly.
The financial information and data on Simply Wall St are much easier to read in graphs and tables.
Also, Simply Wall St covers a lot of international stock markets.
So, that will be good for you if you are investing internationally.
However, what I don’t really like about Simply Wall St is that the financial information and data provided are just too basic and general for stock research and analysis.
On top of that, I don’t feel that there is anything really unique or proprietary about Simply Wall St.
Seeking Alpha Premium, on the other hand, has all the financial information and data (i.e. US stocks as well as international stocks) that you can find on Simply Wall St plus more.
Its proprietary Author Rating and Quant Rating can help you filter through thousands of stocks easily and also help you identify the latest investment opportunity.
Its Top-Rated Stock list is updated daily, so you will never miss any good investment ideas.
The thing that I love the most about Seeking Alpha Premium is the in-depth stock analysis by experts.
What is more, I find it especially useful to go through opposing camps of views on the same stock that I am doing research on.
Why?
Because it really helps me consider all the potential risks and future opportunities involved before making my decision.
Pricing-wise, Simply Wall Street has three different pricing plans:
- Free
- Premium ($10/month)
- Unlimited ($20/month)
So, Simply Wall St Unlimited is priced cheaper than Seeking Alpha Premium, but you can get so much more value by subscribing to Seeking Alpha Premium.
For a limited time only, there is a free 7-day trial for you to test drive it and see if it works for you. If you decide to get it, there is a special 20% discount for you by using this link.
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