Motley Fool is a financial media powerhouse best known for its Stock Advisor stock-picking service. Stock Advisor has significantly outperformed the S&P 500 since it launched 20 years ago.
Motley Fool has followed up Stock Advisor with a series of additional stock recommendation services like Rule Breakers, Rule Your Retirement, and Real Estate Winners. One of the newest stock picking services from Motley Fool is Everlasting Stocks, which takes more of a whole-portfolio approach to investing.
We’ll compare Motley Fool Everlasting Stocks vs. Stock Advisor so you can decide which of these stock recommendation services is right for you.
About Motley Fool
Motley Fool was founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner. Tom and David each built their own teams of analysts and launched the Stock Advisor service in 2003. The service offered two picks per month: one from “Team Tom” and the other from “Team David.”
David Gardner recently stepped back from day-to-day duties at Motley Fool to move into retirement, but the team of analysts he built continues to work on Stock Advisor and other Motley Fool services. Tom Gardner continues to lead his team, and it’s this group that launched Everlasting Stocks in 2018.
The services are offered separately, but they’re also designed to complement one another. Investors can purchase subscriptions to both Stock Advisor and Everlasting Stocks through the Epic Bundle, which we’ll cover in more detail below.
Similarities between Everlasting Stocks and Stock Advisor
Stock Advisor and Everlasting Stocks are more similar than they are different. The two services use almost identical formats for presenting stock picks and managing their active portfolio.
There’s even a fair amount of overlap in the stocks they recommend. The same team of analysts is responsible for all of the picks in Everlasting Stocks and half of the picks in Stock Advisor.
Pick Format
Both Stock Advisor and Everlasting Stocks issue two new stock recommendations per month. The picks are ready to buy, meaning that you don’t need to do any additional research or wait for a specific entry price. Each pick comes with a brief research report that explains why the analyst team likes the stock, but this doesn’t go deep into fundamental analysis.
Additional Recommendations
In addition to the two new recommendations each month, both services offer a ranking list that highlights the top 10 stocks in the portfolio to double-down on right now. These lists can be helpful if you have extra money to invest in between new recommendations.
Stock Advisor also offers a foundational stocks list, which includes 10 stocks that Motley Fool analysts think every growth investor should own in their portfolio.
Differences between Everlasting Stocks and Stock Advisor
The main difference between Stock Advisor and Everlasting Stocks lies in the stocks they recommend. Both services focus on growth stocks and have long investment horizons of five years. However, Stock Advisor isn’t worried about building a diversified portfolio, whereas Everlasting Stocks is.
This means that Stock Advisor has a tendency to follow whatever sector is hot. In recent years, that’s meant that the Stock Advisor portfolio has included a lot of tech stocks.
Everlasting Stocks, at least in theory, should recommend stocks across a wider range of industries to help you build a diversified portfolio. However, in practice, Everlasting Stocks still leans tech-heavy. As of May 2023, 63% of the portfolio was allocated to the Information Technology sector.
There’s also a fair amount of overlap between the two portfolios. They don’t usually recommend the same stock in the same month, but they do end up making a lot of similar recommendations over a 12-month period. In May 2023, half of the stocks in Everlasting Stock’s ranking list were also on Stock Advisor’s ranking list.
Performance Comparison
Since its inception in 2003 through May 2023, . Very few stock picking services can claim such an outstanding track record.
In contrast, Everlasting Stocks returned 4.3% between September 2018 and May 2023 compared to 12.4% for the S&P 500.
Comparing those performances directly can be a little deceiving considering the different timeframes involved. Stock Advisor has the benefit of investing early in companies that have since had two decades to mature, like Amazon and Netflix. Everlasting Stocks is not yet five years old, the time horizon it targeted for maturation of the portfolio’s first investments.
Since the two portfolios overlap so much, it’s likely that they have performed similarly in the past few years. However, Motley Fool doesn’t break down annual performances for its portfolios.
Pricing Comparison
Stock Advisor costs $199 per year, while Everlasting Stocks costs $299 per year. Neither service offers a trial, but every Motley Fool service comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
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You can also buy Stock Advisor and Everlasting Stocks together through Motley Fool’s Epic Bundle, which costs $499 per year. This also includes Rule Breakers and Real Estate Winners, so you get even more stock picks each month.
Which Service is Better?
There’s a lot of overlap between Stock Advisor and Everlasting Stocks, so it’s hard to say definitively that one service is better than the other. If you have to choose one, most investors would be better off with Stock Advisor. It’s slightly cheaper and offers a foundational stocks list that can be very helpful when starting a new portfolio.
That said, the best approach for investors who can afford it is to use both Stock Advisor and Everlasting Stocks together (through the Epic Bundle). This gives you access to more stock picks, and you can use the overlap in ranking lists between the two services to see which picks have the most conviction behind them. The Epic Bundle also includes the Real Estate Winners service, which can help you diversify your portfolio away from tech stocks.
Alternatives to Everlasting Stocks and Stock Advisor
For many investors, the ready-to-buy nature of Motley Fool picks is one of the biggest draws of the company’s services. However, you don’t get many tools to dig deeper into companies and do your own analysis.
Self-driven investors who like the process of researching companies might prefer an alternative service like Zacks Premium or Seeking Alpha Premium. Both of these platforms offer lists of recommended companies, but it’s up to you to decide which stocks to invest in. Both Zacks and Seeking Alpha give you access to detailed fundamental data, stock screeners, and other tools to help you research stocks.
Zacks Premium costs $249 per year and Seeking Alpha Premium costs $239 per year.
Conclusion: Motley Fool Everlasting Stocks vs. Stock Advisor
Everlasting Stocks and Stock Advisor are both stock picking services from Motley Fool. The two services have a lot of overlap, including sharing the same team of analysts to make recommendations. Ideally, investors can mix-and-match picks from both services through Motley Fool’s Epic Bundle. But if you must choose one service, Stock Advisor is slightly cheaper and offers a foundational stocks list to help you build a new portfolio.
