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So, is Simply Wall Street reliable?
Is it a useful stock research and analysis platform?
Can you actually use it to help you pick good stocks?
Are there better alternatives?
After trying out Simply Wall St as well as almost all the other stock research and analysis platforms out there, I will help you answer all the questions above and make a more informed decision.
How You Can Use Simply Wall Street
Simply Wall Street is a stock research and analysis platform that covers about 150,000 stocks worldwide.
Simply Wall Street Stock Analysis Reports
All the stock analysis reports are generated automatically in the same format, using data from company financials as well as analyst’s revenue estimates.
There are a total of 10 sections in the stock report:
- Executive Summary
- Share Price & News
- Valuation
- Future Growth
- Past Performance
- Financial Health
- Dividend
- Management
- Ownership
- Company Information
Personally, I think you only the “Valuation” and “Future Growth” sections might be of some value to you in helping you make an investment decision.
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, let’s take a closer look at the “Valuation” section.
It uses discounted cashflow analysis to calculate the fair value.
If you are unfamiliar with discounted cashflow analysis method, it’s basically a company valuation method that is based on the premise that “the fair value of a company is the total value of its future free cash flow discounted to today’s prices.”
This method is commonly used by a lot of stock analysts as well as many other stock research and analysis platform.
BUT, there are A LOT of assumptions in this method.
Why?
Because no one can predict with absolute certainty the exact free cash flow the company is going to generate every single year from today onward.
To estimate the fair value of a company, analysts make assumptions about the company’s future revenue as well as its growth rate.
As a result, no two analysts would arrive at the same fair value even though they use the same methodology.
For Simply Wall St, it takes stock analysts’ revenue and growth rate estimates and then plug them into a mathematical formula.
Here’s the problem.
Some stocks are widely covered by many analysts, while others are only covered by few analysts.
Let’s take “Microsoft” for example.
Microsoft is covered by 88 analysts.
Yet, only 34 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to generate Simply Wall St report.
Initially, I thought Simply Wall St would take the average of all the 34 analysts’ free cashflow estimates of free cash flow for the next 5 years because that would be a more appropriate way to get the data.
But, it seems that it uses 18 analysts’ free cash flow estimates for the first year.
Then, it uses 8 analysts’ (probably different analysts from above?) free cash flow estimate for the second year.
For the subsequent years, it uses even fewer analysts’ estimates (and probably different analysts too.)
So, it really makes me doubt the reliability of the “fair value” provided by Simply Wall Street.
So, can you still rely on this “fair value estimate” to make your investment decision?
Personally, I think you should NEVER use this data alone to determine whether or not a stock is a good buy.
Why?
It’s NOT the actual fair value of the stock.
In fact, let’s take a look at a few more fair value estimates of Microsoft stock that I found from other sources.
From Gurufocus, the Peter Lynch fair value estimate for Microsoft is $162.21, as of Aug 2021.
According to Morningstar, the estimated fair value is recently increased to $325 from $278 after its recent earnings release.
From Stock Rover, the estimated fair value is $298.53.
Now, what about Simply Wall St?
The estimated fair value provided by Simply Wall St is $383.15.
As you can see, the estimated fair value for the same stock varies widely across a few stock research and analysis platforms.
So, what I would recommend is that you could calculate the average of all the fair value estimates and then use that as one of your references in your investment decision-making.
Here’s another strategy that I personally use.
After you have decided on investing a certain amount of money in a stock, it’s wise to build a full position in this stock through multiple purchases instead of using all of your allocated capital to buy the full position at one time.
So, what do I mean by that?
Let’s say that you plan to invest $30,000 in Microsoft.
Instead of buying $30,000 worth of Microsoft stock at one time, you buy the stock in three equal instalments at different price levels.
For example, you could buy $10,000 worth of Microsoft stock at $280/share, another $10,000 worth of Microsoft stock at $252/share and the final $10,000 worth of Microsoft stock at $224/share.
By doing so, you could reduce your risk with a lower average cost price., especially considering that the current market rally is currently over-extended.
Now, let’s move on to the other two sections ” Financial Health” and “Future Growth” and see whether they are helpful.
For “Future Growth” section, you will find analysts’ earnings and revenue growth as well as earnings per share forecasts presented in graphical format.
And for “Financial Health” section, you will find assets vs liability for both short term and long term, debt to equity ratio as well as oversimplified balance sheet in graphical format.
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 easy-to-read graphical format.
If you are a new investor, you might find this format every beginner friendly.
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 in-depth stock research and analysis. (For that, you might want to check out this stock research and analysis platform called “Stock Rover“.)
On top of that, there is nothing really unique or proprietary about Simply Wall St.
Yes, the financial information and data on Simply Wall St are much easier to read in graphs and tables.
But, I would prefer more specific and in-depth stock analysis.
Why?
Because I cannot make a decision on whether or not I want to invest in the stock (and also at what price) after going through the stock analysis on Simply Wall St.
How Much Simply Wall Street Costs
There are three different pricing plans:
- Free
- Premium ($10/month)
- Unlimited ($20/month)
So, what is the main difference between these pricing plans?
The main difference is the limit on the number of company reports you can get access to every month as well as the number of portfolio stocks analysed.
With the free plan, you can only have 5 company reports per month and 5 portfolio stocks analysed.
For Premium Plan, you have up to 30 company reports per month and 30 portfolio stock analysed.
If you want unlimited data for all the stocks, then the Unlimited Plan gives you that.
Also, with both Premium Plan and Unlimited Plan, you get stock screener as well.
Simply Wall Street Vs Stock Rover
Both Simply Wall Street and Stock Rover are stock research and analysis platform.
So, what is the key difference between these two platforms?
The key difference is that Stock Rover is much more robust and powerful platform for fundamental stock analysis than Simply Wall Street.
So, what does that mean?
Stock Rover offers a wide range of financial data and information such as earnings, growth, profitability, financial strength, capital efficiency, price performance, momentum, dividends, analyst ratings, and stock ratings.
Basically, you have ALL the financial and fundamental data on any US & Canada Stocks in one place.
On top of that, Stock Rover also provides “Value Score” and “Quality Score” as well as Morningstar Grades for Financial Health, Profitability and Growth to help you save a lot of time in evaluating stocks.
By the way, all the data are presented to you in easy-to-understand tables as well as graphs, so you don’t get overwhelmed by data.
Although it might not be as visually vibrant as Simply Wall Street, it offers much more substance to aid your investment decision.
Furthermore, Stock Rover makes it very easy for you to find investment ideas with its advanced fundamental stock screener.
This stock screener is by far one of the best fundamental stock screeners in the market with about 600 financial metrics for you to choose from and find the stock that matches your investment criteria.
Stock Rover also has quite a large number of built-in stock screeners based on popular investment strategies.
Below is just a few examples of its built-in stock screeners:
- Buffetology Inspired
- Dividend Growth
- Large Cap Value
- Fair Value
- Long Term Growth
- Strong Buys
- Safe Performers
- Small Cap Growth
When it comes to stock screener, I could say that Stock Rover easily beat Simply Wall Street hands down.
Lastly, Stock Rover provides you with free portfolio management and analytics by connecting your brokerage accounts directly to your Stock Rover account.
Currently, Stock Rover supports more than 1000+ brokerages.
As of my writing today, Stock Rover has more than $10,000,000,000 (i.e. 10 Billion) of funds in customer linked brokerage portfolio accounts.
In terms of pricing, Stock Rover has both free and paid plans.
For its paid plans, there are three tiers:
- Essentials at $7.99/month (or $6.67/month if billed annually)
- Premium at $17.99/month (or $15.00/month if billed annually)
- Premium Plus at $27.99/month (or $23.33/month if billed annually)
As you can see, Stock Rover‘s most expensive plan, Premium Plus, is very competitively priced.
If you are looking for a good fundamental stock research and analysis platform for US and Canada stocks, I highly recommend Stock Rover because it offers so much more value for almost the same price.
Try Out Stock Rover Risk-Free For 14 Days Now (No Credit Card Required)
Simply Wall Street Vs Morningstar
There are a few key difference between Simply Wall Street and Morningstar.
First of all, Morningstar provides proprietary stock ratings, valuations and research reports.
Also, Morningstar is specifically focused on helping you find good quality stocks for long term appreciation.
If you are a value investor, you might find Morningstar very helpful because it helps you identify all the good companies and also all the companies that are currently undervalued.
For each stock, you will also get the stock research report that makes the case for or against investing in it.
On top of that, I also like its “Bulls Say Bears Say” where you can get different perspectives from both sides of the camp.
Lastly, Morningstar not only covers stocks, but it also covers bonds, mutual funds and ETFs while Simply Wall St only covers stocks.
In terms of pricing, Morningstar Premium memberships are available at the following term lengths and prices:
- $29.95 for monthly
- $199 for annual plan (i.e. $16.58/month)
- $349 for two-year plan (i.e. $14.54/month)
- $449 for three-year plan (i.e $12.47/month)
If you go for the annual plan or above, it is definitely much cheaper than Simply Wall St’s Unlimited Plan.
So, I would recommend Morningstar Premium if you are a long term value investor.
Try Morningstar Premium For 14 Days Free
Simply Wall Street Vs Motley Fool
Now, let’s compare Simply Wall St with Motley Fool.
The main difference between Simply Wall St and Motley Fool is that Motley Fool gives you specific stock recommendations and help you build a stock portfolio for the long term.
What I really like Motley Fool is that it will give you a deep-dive on the stocks, so you can understand how they actually analyse the company and why they recommend it after considering everything including potential risks.
They also don’t just stop at that.
Whenever there is significant price movement on the stocks or major news on the stocks, they will help you understand the impact these events have on the stocks.
If it is time to sell, you will also receive real-time notifications on that.
On the other hand, Simply Wall St is just a stock research platform where you can get basic financial data and information in an easy to read format.
So, can you really achieve above-market returns with Motley Fool stock recommendations?
Below is the performance comparison between Motley Fool Stock Advisor and S&P 500 between 2002 and June 2021.
As of June 2021, average Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendations have returned over 592.5%% since inception while S&P 500 has returned 132.3%.
So, what does that mean?
If you had invested $10,000 in the stocks recommended by Motley Fool Stock Advisor, your investment portfolio would be worth more than $300,000.
On the other hand, if you had invested $10,000 in S&P 500 index funds, your portfolio would be worth about $50,000.
In short, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor has beat the market 5 to 1.
That’s a HUGE difference in returns.
Now, what about the performance comparison between Motley Fool Stock Advisor and S&P 500 for the past 5 years?
| Year | Motley Fool Stock Advisor
(Average Return to 23 Jul 2021) |
S&P 500
(Average Return to 23 Jul 2021) |
| 2016 | 462% | 125% |
| 2017 | 223% | 94% |
| 2018 | 253% | 69% |
| 2019 | 126% | 58% |
| 2020 | 93% | 41% |
So, in terms of overall performance, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor has beat the market every single year for the past 5 years. (Note: Performance is calculated from 1st Jan of each year to 12th Feb 2021)
But, what about its individual stock picks?
As of June 2021, Motley Fool Stock Advisor has had 191 stock recommendations with 100%+returns.
What that means is that you would have easily doubled your money if you had invested in any of the 191 stock picks by Motley Fool Stock Advisor.
Here are just some of their best-performing stock picks:
- Amazon: it’s up 20,255%
- Netflix: it’s up 21,471%
- Walt Disney: it’s up 9,625%
- NVIDIA: it’s up 7,855%
- Shopify: it is up 3,173%
- United Health Group: it is up 2,637%
- Activision Blizzard, it’s up 2,584%
Just imagine that you actually found out about these great stocks way before everyone else did.
So, how much does Motley Fool Stock Advisor cost?
Usually, its annual subscription is $199.
Right now, there’s a special discount of 50% OFF for new members when you click the link here to try it out for 30 days 100% risk-free.
So, for $99 a year- that’s just $1.90 a week – you can gain unlimited access to their library of expert stock recommendations which are carefully selected to help you grow your wealth.
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