Motley Fool vs. Morningstar

To buy or to sell?

That is the question.

How do you make your decisions?

In today’s world, news moves at the speed of light (probably faster).

If you plan to be a successful investor…

…you need to be on your game.

If you are not, you will never get ahead as an investor.

Therefore, having technology on your side is one key to success.

You simply cannot survive without the help of technology.

But the volume of options can also be downright frustrating.

So, what is another way you can get ahead?

By reading this blog post. Read it to the bitter end.

Why?

Because we are enabling your lazy ass to coast on this one.

We have two great companies for you to consider:

Those companies are Motley Fool vs. MorningStar.

Each company is strong, for similar and different reasons.

And one thing is for sure: Both companies can help you achieve success.

But if you had to choose ONE…

…which one would you choose?

Keep in mind, there can only be one winner.

Enough talk, more action.

Let’s get into our latest matchup: Motley Fool vs. MorningStar.

Let’s GO!

Motley Fool

Let me just say…

…I am a “fool” for The Motley Fool!

Why?

Because The Motley Fool is free and easy to understand.

The Motley Fool is old enough to be a millennial.

The company began in 1993 and was a HUGE hit.

The company set out to deliver results by beating the so-called “experts.”

They did it – and they were very entertaining while doing it.

The Motley Fool has made countless people wealthy and successful.

How?

By piquing peoples’ interest in the wonderful world of investing.

So, maybe these guys did not directly make everyone wealthy.

But they break down investing in a way that people can understand and enjoy.

People love The Motley Fool because it is so damn user-friendly.

The website is very intuitive, and there is a variety of services available.

If you are new to investing, you will find Motley Fool much simpler than Morningstar.

But we are sort of comparing apples to oranges here.

Morningstar is data-heavy and spits out information that only experienced investors understand.

The beauty of The Motley Fool is that it can be understood by everyone, but is still useful to everyone.

The company offers informative articles accompanied by a bit of humor.

And usually, Wall Street is utterly devoid of humor.

Before we get into the premium services, there is one crucial thing we must highlight.

The Motley Fool offers tons of free resources in terms of news, analysis, and more!

But if you are a real go-getter, you may be interested in gaining an edge.

So, here are Motley Fool’s paid subscription services:

The Stock Advisor

Stock Advisor is Motley Fool’s flagship service.

Each month, you receive two stock recommendations for your portfolio.

Are you new to investing?

Because you also get recommendations to build the foundation of your portfolio.

If that is not enough, the subscription includes educational resources and additional stock recommendations tailored to you.

In addition to recommendations, you also receive newsletters and community access.

This service costs just 0.55 cents per day (or $199 per year).

Rule Breakers

Rule Breakers is quite similar to Stock Advisor.

However, these stock recommendations come from Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner.

Gardner selects stocks focused on high-performance and higher returns.

Your membership includes newsletters, recommendations, and community access.

This service costs just 0.82 cents per day (or $299 per year).

Rule Your Retirement

Motley Fool provides three models to maximize your retirement portfolio.

Additionally, you can get tips to get the most out of your Social Security.

Your membership includes model retirement portfolios and tips on Social Security.

This service costs just 0.41 cents per day (or $149 per year).

Options

You can get access to Options University for advanced trading strategies.

This service is more for intermediate investors.

However, beginners can also enjoy the recommendations, commentary on market news, and regular updates.

This service costs 2.74 per day (or $999 per year).

Morningstar

Morningstar is one of those “older” companies.

Founded back in 1984, the company began by analyzing mutual funds.

The cost to subscribe was high, and the internet was not really a thing.

What does this mean?

Information on mutual funds was nearly impossible to find.

This reason alone increased Morningstar’s popularity.

From there, its coverage grew from plain, old mutual funds…

…and now includes individual stock analysis.

From humble beginnings, the company now serves:

9 million individual investors;
260 thousand financial advisors; and
51 hundred institutional investors.

You can subscribe to Morningstar on a monthly or annual basis.

The monthly subscription fee of $24 and the annual subscription fee is $200.

Many investors consider Morningstar to be their go-to mutual fund research tool.

The company provides insight and investment offerings for over 510,000 companies.

Morningstar has many features, but here are the most important:

Rating System

The “star” system is used for grading mutual funds.

Each fund is rated between 1 and 5 stars based on its market performance.

The star rating is intuitive (pretend you are shopping on Amazon or something).

However, there is much more to the system than what meets the eye.

Here is how it works:

Mutual Funds

The star system measures the performance of individual funds for three, five, and ten years.

Based on the results, each fund is ranked within a specific category of related funds.

Stocks

Morningstar uses the star system for stocks, but the factors are different.

The system for stocks is based on the overall valuation of an individual stock.

For example, a five-star stock implies an undervalued stock.

On the other hand, a one-star stock implies an overvalued stock or a generally weak company.

So, what do Morningstar analysts look for when rating stocks?

Here are the major factors:

Current prices;
Fair market value; and

From there, the stocks are ranked into different categories and given a star rating.

X-Ray Tool

What can beat Morningstar’s x-ray tool?

To some people, the answer is nothing.

The tool is useful AND easy to use.

For example, let’s say that you are deliberating between several mutual funds.

You can take the x-ray tool and determine if your fund choices have similarities.

These similarities include things like how many of the same stock you have in other funds.

You can also get the exact percentages of each holding for your entire portfolio.

If that is not enough, the tool will even interpret the results and let you know how your diversification is looking.

Are you properly diversified?

Do you have too much in one industry or sector?

Morningstar will let you know and reduce your overall risk.

Valuation

Morningstar uses its own propriety model to value companies.

The company utilizes a discounted cash flow model that remains undisclosed to the public.

But generally speaking, the way companies are valued is by discounting cash flow to the present, lump-sum value.

Screeners

The stock and mutual fund screeners are a life-saver for many.

You can quickly search for stocks and mutual funds based on your chosen criteria.

For example, you can search by star performance ratings.

The Bottomline

So, is Morningstar worth joining?

We will leave the decision up to you (like we have a choice).

Your options are two- and three-year subscriptions to the service.

The two-year subscription is $339, and the three-year subscription is $439.

Which One Is Better?

Okay, now that you have made it the end, we owe you an answer.

Motley Fool vs. Morningstar – which is the superior company?

If you need to choose one, go with The Motley Fool.

If you can try both, you need to try both (and heck, you might keep both).

The Motley Fool has more to offer everyone.

However, both services offer something unique,

Important Reminder!

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor ranks as our #1 Best Investment Newsletter for the third year in a row.

Their stock recommendations continue to beat all of the other newsletters that we follow and they maintain a very high accuracy of their picks. Their 24 stock picks from 2018 have outperformed the market by an average of 44% as of October 12, 2019. Read that again. I didn’t say their stock picks are up an average of 44%, I said they have BEAT THE MARKET by 44%.

No other newsletter comes close to that. You may have seen the Motley Fool’ advertisements that their picks are up 367% compared to the market’s 80%. Is The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor really as good as they claim?

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Motley Fool vs. Morningstar