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Motley Fool Stock Picks of 2021

The Motley Fool is one of the most well known stock research sites.

And they have several of the most popular stock picking newsletters, “Stock Advisors” and “Rule Breakers.”

To promote these stock newsletters, they make fantastic claims like the following:

That ad says the Stock Advisor’s stock picks are up 680% as of November 6, 2021 compared to the S&P500’s 142%.  These are average returns of each of their stock picks going back to inception of this service in 2002.

Those returns are great if you have been a subscriber since 2002.  In the beginning, they picked stocks like Amazon and Netflix and Disney that have 10,000+% returns that skew their average return.

BUT…. if you are now thinking about subscribing to the Motley Fool… you should be more interested in how their recent stock picks have performed!  Let me show you some of their picks and how they have performed since I have been a paid subscriber since January 2016.

The Motley Fool Stock Pick’s for the Last 5 Years

To test the Motley Fool services, in 2015 I signed up for the two most popular Motley Fool’s newsletters:

Then, I opened 2 different ETrade accounts and started buying $1,000-$2,000 of all of their stock picks since January 2016.  At 2 picks per month, that is 120 stock picks over the 5 year period from 2015 to 2020 for each newsletter.

Stock Advisor Performance

Here is how the Stock Advisor stock picks have performed for me by year of recommendation (Note, I am excluding their 2021 picks for this analysis as those picks don’t yet have a year of performance, but rest assured they are beating the SP500 and 2 (UPST and TEAM have already doubled):

 

As of November 5, 2021, here is a summary of the Motley Fool stock picks for the last 5 years:

  • The average return of all 120 stock picks is 233% vs the SP500 88%
  • 84% of their stock picks have been profitable
  • 57 of those 120 picks have at least doubled, and 34 have at least tripled
  • Their top pick from 2020 is TSLA and it is up 1,320% since they picked it.  Here is a pic from my ETrade account to prove it:
  • Their top pick from 2019 is HUBS and it is up 423%.
  • Their top pick from 2018 is SHOP which is up 1,105%
  • from 2018 NVDA is up 1,059%
  • and from 2016 their SHOP pick is up 4,628%

All of those stats are impressive, but it points to how the Motley Fool Stock Advisor has achieved these fantastic returns.  They are very good at picking stocks that go up (84%), and they are really good at picking a few stocks a year that double, triple or even more!

But here is an important note that I must emphasize:  To get these overall returns you MUST buy equal dollar amounts of ALL of their stock picks, as I have done.  When I subscribed and started buying their stocks, I tried to buy $1500 to $2000 of each of their 2 picks per month.  I also sold the 5 stocks that they recommended.

So, while it is true that their overall average return since inception is 680%, the average return  of their last 5 years is 233% compared to the market’s return of 88%.  That means they are outperforming the market by about 4x.

Motley Fool Success Rate

As you can see above, the Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor’s success rate over the last 5 years is 84%.  That means 101 of their last 120 stock picks are up.  Most impressively, 57 of those 120 stock picks have at least doubled and 34 have actually tripled.  It is because of so many stocks doubling and tripling that their average return for all 120 stock picks for the last 5 years is so high.

 


Motley Fool Stock Advisor Summary

  • What You Get:
    • 2 new stock recommendations per month
    • 2 lists of the “5 Best Stocks to Buy Now” per month
    • immediate access to all their recent stock recommendations
  • Recent Performance:
    • 84% of stock recommendations over the last 5 years are profitable
    • 233% average return of those 120 stocks, versus 88% for the SP500
  • Date of Next Recommendation:  March 28th
  • Retail Price:  $199 per year

 

Motley Fool Rule Breakers Performance

Their newer and less well know subscription service is called their Rule Breakers.  This service specifically looks for companies that “are poised to be tomorrow’s stock market leaders.”  Here is how their Rule Breakers service has performed for us from 2016 to 2020.  You will note that Rule Breaker’s 2020 performance is not as strong as the Stock Advisor performance, but the other 4 years are stronger and the 5 year average of Rule Breakers is 331% compared to Stock Advisor’s 233%:

Here are the performance highlights of the Rule Breakers stock picks as of the dated indicated at the top of the table:

  • 5 of the 2020 Rule Breakers have doubled and they are up 76%
  • The Rule Breaker’s 2019 stock picks are up 147%
  • Their 2018 selections are now up 233%
  • Their 2017 are up 368%
  • and, their 2016 picks are up 833%
  • The average is 331% vs the SP500’s 87%
  • The top picks are:
    • 2020 pick of SE is up 694%
    • 2019 pick of ETSY is up 522%
    • 2018 pick of MDB is up 1,625%
    • 2017 winner is TTD up 1,899%
    • and the 2016 is SHOP up 7,170% (it was picked earlier in the year compared to Stock Advisor’s SHOP pick)

Rule Breaker’s Success Rate

As you can see above, the Motley Fool’s Rule Breaker’s success rate over the last 5 years is 81%.  That means 97 of their last 120 stock picks are up.  Most impressively, 63 of those 120 stock picks have doubled and 40 have actually tripled.  It is because of so many stocks doubling and tripling that their average return for all 120 stock picks for the last 5 years is 331% compared to the market’s average of 87%.

 


Motley Fool Rule Breakers Summary

  • What You Get:
    • 2 new stock recommendations per month
    • 2 lists of the “5 Best Stocks to Buy Now” per month
    • immediate access to all their recent stock recommendations
  • Recent Performance:
    • 81% of stock recommendations over the last 5 years are profitable
    • 331% average return of those 120 stocks, versus 87% for the SP500
  • Date of Next Recommendation:  March 28th
  • Retail Price:  $299 per year

 

The Motley Fool’s 2021 Stock Picks

The Motley Fool releases 2 stocks a month so far they have released 4 stock picks in 2021.  The Motley Fool is strict about preventing websites from releasing their last few stock picks’ ticker symbols, so I can only tell you their performance so far this year.

As of November 6, 2021 the Motley Fool Stock Picks 2021 are performing as follows:

  • The first Stock Advisor pick of February, 2021 is already up 23%
  • Their second pick of February is only 2 days old and is unchanged.
  • The first stock pick in January is down 2%
  • Their second stock pick is up 12%
  • The two stocks LMND and COUP from December, 2020 are up 84% and 4%
  • Stock picks FVRR and ZBRA from November, 2020 are already up 81% and 37%
  • and their October, 2020 picks PINS and ADSK are up 92% and 21%

About the Motley Fool

They were founded in 1993 by two brothers Tom and David Gardner as a company whose stated purpose is to “make the world smarter, happier and richer.”

The are based in Alexandria, Virginia and have about 300 employees.  They Stock Advisor service has over 700,000 subscribers and their Rule Breakers service has over 100,000 subscribers.   The Stock Advisor retails for $199 a year and Rule Breakers retails for $299 a year.

Conclusion

Yes, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor has yielded fantastic returns of 600+% since inception in 2002 and over 200% since we started tracking it in 2016.  No other stock newsletter comes close to those returns.  Best of all, the price is only $99 per year for new subscribers so it is absolutely worth it.  If you want to beat the market and have many stocks that double and triple every year, you should give it a try.  Here’s the 50% off link to their new subscriber discount page.

Their Rule Breakers service has actually performed better over the last 5 years, but their 2020 stocks did not do as well as the Stock Advisor service did.  We also note that the variance of the Rule Breakers service is much higher.  That means, if you miss out on buying just one stock a year from the Rule Breaker’s service and that one stock happened to be their bigger flyer, then your overall results would be significantly less than their reported results.  To learn more about their Rule Breakers, read this review.  Bottom line, we recommend Stock Advisor for newer investors because of their longer track record.

Over the last 5 years, the Motley Fool picks are up on average 233%; 57 out of 120 have doubled!
Don’t miss out on their next pick that comes out this Thursday, March 28th! CLICK HERE to get try it for only $19.