April 27, 2023

Seeking Alpha Review

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Seeking Alpha eliminates the "guesswork from your investing decisions." But is it worth the subscription fee? Is Seeking Alpha right for you?

Choosing which stocks to buy can be a daunting task. Without the needed information, how do you make smart investment decisions? Seeking Alpha claims their Premium plan can guide you.

In this review, find out the key features, price, pros and cons of Seeking Alpha. Plus, learn whether its Premium service is worth the money.

What Is Seeking Alpha?

Seeking Alpha is an online investment research platform. It offers market analysis, stock reviews, and crowdsourced investing perspectives. It's like the Yelp of stocks.

It has a team of editors who curate its crowdsourced content to ensure that every article is of high quality.

Seeking Alpha is also a community. It is now the largest investing community with 20 million monthly users. It also has 7,000 contributors publishing 10,000 investing insights each month. [1]

Is Seeking Alpha reliable?
Yes, Seeking Alpha is reliable based on its historical performance. Over the past decade, its top-rated stocks have consistently brought higher returns than the S&P 500. It has an average annualized return of over 25%.[2]

Unfortunately, only some of this information is for free. Unlimited access to these benefits requires a subscription to their Premium plan. But is it worth your time and money? Let's take a closer look.

What You Get with Seeking Alpha Premium

With Seeking Alpha Premium, you gain essential tools for discovering and assessing which stocks to buy, sell, or hold.

  • Stock Ratings and Factor Grades
    The ratings and factor grades provide you with a quick objective assessment of each stock. This is good if you want to use data to make your own investing decisions.

  • Top-rated Stocks
    These stocks received the highest rating from Seeking Alpha authors, Wall Street analysts, and Seeking Alpha's quantitative metrics. You can choose from this list if you're wondering about which stocks to buy.

  • Customized Content
    This gives you a quick view of analysis and breaking news that may affect your investments.

  • Stocks Screener
    This feature tells you the stocks rated as "Strong Buy" in various sectors, categories, and industries.

  • Data Visualizations
    You get access to charts, graphs, and trends that help you understand the historical performance of each company.

Aside from stocks, Seeking Alpha's Premium subscription also gives you information on:
  • mutual funds
  • ETFs
  • commodities
  • cryptocurrency

Now, let's look at how premium features fit different kinds of investors.

Whom is Seeking Alpha Premium Best For

Seeking Alpha Premium is best for:

  • Research-driven investors
  • Long-term investors
  • Those who need help in choosing what stocks or funds to buy
  • Investors and traders who value technical content

Most of Seeking Alpha's stock analysis articles are not for beginners. The analysis tends to be too technical.

However, the Premium subscription can also be good for beginners because of the list of top-rated stocks. Those are good if you don't want to do research.

Beginners can learn from their free Education section (without signing up for Premium). It has tons of beginner-friendly articles that teach you about portfolio management, investing, 401(k)s, and IRAs. The knowledge it provides can definitely help you grow as an investor.

Who Should Skip Seeking Alpha Premium

The Premium plan may not be for:

  • Traders who lean on shorter time frames
  • Investors who don't want to pick individual stocks
  • Those who may easily get overwhelmed with a wealth of information
  • Investors who are not interested in managing their own portfolio

Pros And Cons of Seeking Alpha Premium

Here is an overview of what you should consider before subscribing to Seeking Alpha's Premium Plan.

  • High-quality content
  • High performance of recommended stocks
  • Access to Expert Analysis
  • Free trial
  • Subscription Cost
  • Highly technical
  • Lack of interface customization
  • Some articles are inaccurate

Is Seeking Alpha Membership Worth It?

Yes, Seeking Alpha is worth it for different kinds of investors. The subscription fee is a good deal if you're managing your own portfolio. And for beginners, the education and quick access features are most helpful.

Seeking Alpha's top-rated stocks have an average annual return of about 25%.

That means you can potentially earn back your membership fee if you invest $1,000 on its recommended stocks.

The solid investment research and education you can get from the platform are also invaluable. You get access to investing ideas, ratings, and comparisons not covered anywhere else. That alone is worth more than the Premium subscription fee.

Should you subscribe to the Premium plan?
You should if you are a research-driven investor. But it's best to try it out first before deciding to subscribe. Seeking Alpha offers a one-week free trial for its Premium and Pro plans. You can explore the platform within those one week to see if it's the right fit for you.

Pricing Plans For Seeking Alpha

Seeking Alpha offers three plans: Basic, Premium, and Pro. Check out the table below for a quick comparison of the plans.

Features BasicPremiumPro
Email alerts
Real-time news updates
Free portfolio health check
Stock prices & charts
Wall Street Ratings
Seeking Alpha Author Ratings
Quant Ratings
Stock Dividend Grades
Top Ideas
PRO content & newsletters
Short ideas portals
VIP Service

Basic Plan
The Basic plan has a paywall for its content. You can only access one article per month. This plan is right for you if:

  • You're just a market observer
  • You only need to see the latest industry headlines, article summaries, and stock prices

Premium Plan
The Premium plan gives you unlimited access to Premium content, and includes valuable stock ratings and the Top Rated Stocks. It's right for you if:

  • You're a DIY investor who needs help in choosing what stocks to buy, sell, or hold
  • You need research and data to make your own investment decisions

Pro Plan
The Pro plan gives you quick access to the cream-of-the-crop investing perspectives. It's right for you if:

  • You're managing a significant investment portfolio
  • You want to filter the thousands of ideas in the platform;

Next, let us check each plan's key features and see how they might fit your investment needs.

Key Features Of Seeking Alpha Premium

Seeking Alpha has a ton of features to help you manage, explore, and analyze stocks and other assets. It has all the features of the Basic plan, plus more. Let's dive into its key features:

  • Portfolio Syncing
    The Premium plan allows you to link your portfolio from your brokerage account. It allows you to monitor your investments all in one place.

    It also has additional data, including ratings, rating history, factor grades, and financial statements from over five years ago.

    Haven't started investing yet? You can create a Seeking Alpha portfolio with stocks you want to monitor.

  • Content Optimization
    What's so good about Seeking Alpha is it caters to investors of varying levels. It offers optimized content depending on your preference, goals, and chosen stocks.

    You will mostly see ratings, articles, and news that may affect your portfolio.

    Right off the start of your subscription, it will immediately ask you to choose among these three goals:
    • Manage: "Track and Optimize Your Portfolio"
    • Explore: "Discover New Exciting Stocks to Invest In"
    • Analyze: "Evaluate Stocks You're Interested In"

  • Stock Ratings
    Seeking Alpha offers three types of stock ratings to guide your analysis:

    • Wall Street Ratings from Wall Street analysts
    • SA Authors Ratings from Seeking Alpha authors
    • Quant Ratings based on quantitative objective data

    The SA Authors Ratings tell you whether the investors and analysts in the community are leaning more toward buying, holding, or selling a particular stock.

    Aside from expert and analyst opinions, you can use Quant rating, too. This is best if you prefer to assess the statistics.

  • Quant Rating and Factor Grades
    Seeking Alpha's Quant Rating compares competing stocks in terms of value, growth, profitability, momentum, and earnings per share revisions. Stocks are graded based on Factor Grades to determine their Quant rating.

    If the stock has a high Quant rating (the highest is 5), then it's most likely a great choice to buy that stock. You also get an alert once your stocks' ratings change.

    You can also choose a stocks or funds category with Predefined Comparisons. These categories include, but are not limited to:
    • FAANG Stocks: Comparison of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google
    • Big Bank Stocks: Comparison of the top U.S. banks
    • Cash Equivalents: Comparison of ETFs

  • Top-Rated Stocks and Stocks Screeners
    The top-rated stocks is a list of stocks with the highest SA Authors rating, Wall Street Analysts rating, and Quant rating. You would want to buy and hold these stocks for the long term.

    There are top-rated stocks in various categories. With screeners, you get to screen stocks according to its quant ratings, profitability, or industry.

  • Top Authors to Follow
    The 'Top Authors to Follow' feature allows you to filter authors by style or sector. This tells you who the star contributors are.

  • Author Performance Metrics
    The Author Performance Metrics gives you an idea about the credibility of each author.

    You get to know the author's thoughts on a specific stock and the stock's performance since the day of the article's publication.

    This tells you whether the author's recommendation (buy, sell, or hold the stock) has proven to be correct so far.

  • Community and Content
    Seeking Alpha's community offers investing ideas for stocks, ETFs, precious metals, and even currencies.

    You also get access to each company's earning calls transcripts, earning forecasts, and financial statements for the past decade. These data help you analyze the profitability of each stock.

Can you make money off Seeking Alpha?
Yes, you can also make money by being a contributor. Seeking Alpha pays $45 for every published article on under-covered stocks.

Key Features Of Seeking Alpha Pro

Not satisfied with the Premium features? Consider the Pro plan. Seeking Alpha Pro is touted as a profit accelerator for investors with a large portfolio. It has all the features of the Premium plan with these advanced add-ons.

  • Top Ideas
    You get exclusive access to the platform's most well-researched and high-conviction investment ideas.

  • Exclusive Newsletters
    You get exclusive access to newsletters with interviews and money-making opportunities.

  • VIP Customer Service
    You get personalized support through email or phone.

  • Pro Screener
    You get to filter the noise or irrelevant articles in the platform. This allows you to quickly see articles written by Pro authors or investment experts.

  • 100% Free Ads
    The Premium plan has a few ads. The Pro plan has no ads at all. This helps you to focus on what matters.

What Is Free On Seeking Alpha

Seeking Alpha's Basic plan offers limited access to content, news, and analysis. Nevertheless, it gives you free unlimited access to headlines and article summaries. You also get free access to the following:

  • Education Section
    You can access educational articles that can help you understand the investment landscape. Some articles include an explanation of bearish and bullish markets, inflation, and portfolio management, among many others.

  • Portfolio Health Check
    This allows you to see whether your investment portfolio is at risk or not. It also reveals the quality and performance of your stocks.

  • Wall Street Stock Ratings
    This tells you the sentiment of Wall Street analysts for each stock. A stock receives a high rating if Wall Street analysts recommend a Strong Buy for that stock.

  • Stock Prices and Charts
    You can freely access stock prices and charts on stock performances for the past years.

  • Email Alert and News Updates
    You get news updates that may affect your portfolio. This is sent directly to your email.

  • Mobile App
    This gives you easy access to the free content, anytime anywhere.

How Does Seeking Alpha Compare?

  • Seeking Alpha Premium vs Morningstar Investor
    Morningstar caters best to fund investors and active traders. Its rating system is primarily for ETFs and mutual funds, though it also has individual stocks. On the other hand, Seeking Alpha's rating system is primarily for stocks, though it also has resources on ETFs and other funds.

    In terms of the membership fee, Seeking Alpha Premium ($239/yr)[3] is cheaper than Morningstar Investor ($249/yr).[4]

  • Seeking Alpha Premium vs Motley Fool Stock Advisor
    Motley Fool Stock Advisor is primarily used for its stock picks. It gives you 2 top stock picks per month, along with suggestions for other timely buys.

    It is best for new investors who may not need too much data on a certain stock. On the contrary, Seeking Alpha is for those who need data and research.

    Unlike Motley Fool, Seeking Alpha's stock analysis is more technical. It also has more depth.

    In terms of price, Motley Fool Stock Advisor ($199/yr)[5] is cheaper than Seeking Alpha Premium ($239/yr). But they sometimes offer a discount for new members.

Bottom Line

Seeking Alpha Premium is a valuable resource for stock investors of any level.

The stock ratings and investment research it offers can benefit beginners and advanced investors alike. It helps you choose which stocks to buy, hold, or sell.

Without knowledge and investment research, it is difficult to make profits in investing.

You need information on the intrinsic value of a stock and what the investing community thinks. These are all beneficial in forming your own investment decision.

Seeking Alpha's Premium service provides just what you need to become an informed investor.

References

  1. ^ Seeking Alpha. About Us
  2. ^ Seeking Alpha. Seeking Alpha's Quant Performance, Retrieved 4/7/23
  3. ^ Seeking Alpha. Subscription Plan Pricing, Retrieved 4/7/23
  4. ^ Morningstar. FAQ: What's the price of a subscription to Morningstar Investor?, Retrieved 4/7/23
  5. ^ Motley Fool. Motley Fool Premium Services, Retrieved 4/7/23
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