Best Stock Research Websites – Top 11 Picks For Successful Investing

Day traders aren’t the only ones who appreciate the value in market research to beat the market. Seasoned and new investors who want to improve their portfolio use stock research websites to help make their stock picks. With so many stocks and index funds out there, these websites make it easier to find the right information to help you make investment decisions.

There are many research tools out there to choose from. Some may provide stock advisor services for investors who want recommendations, while others don’t. So how does the average investor know which to choose among all the options? That’s where we come in! We’ve done the research on these research websites. So now let’s dive deep into the world of the best stock research websites so you can find the right match and get trading!

What is Stock Research?

Before we get too far into the weeds, let’s understand what stock research is. Investors who want to thoroughly research a certain industry or stock before they invest are conducting stock investment research. During this process, an investor may look at articles, advice from market leaders, and conduct stock analysis. Investors look at the stock’s overall track record over the years and review quarterly earnings.

Using this investment research, they will determine whether or not to add a specific stock to their portfolio. The purpose of investing is to generate a return. Doing this stock research is critical to know which stocks picks to invest in and what to stay away from.

What Do Stock Research Platforms Offer?

There are a lot of different types of stock market websites out there. Some websites provide you with the tools that you need to conduct your own stock research. While there are others that have a more hands-on approach where they focus on providing stock recommendations. When looking at stock analysis websites, it is important to look at they are different from each other to choose the one that meets your needs.

Stock Advisor Picks

Being able to conduct your own market research and use tools to explore stocks is great for the investor who selects their stock picks. Other investors may find these stock research tools to be overwhelming. If you don’t have a process to find stocks, analyze the information, and make timely trades, you won’t be getting what you need from some stock market websites.

That’s when working with a stock picking service is beneficial. Stock advisor services do all the research for you. A stock picking service may conduct technical analysis by looking for patterns, while another service may focus on looking at fundamentals. A stock advisor picks the potential stocks so it saves you time. But you should use these stock picking services as a starting point. You will need to do follow-up research on stocks that are recommended before buying.

Research Information

Most stock research sites will provide both technical and fundamental information when making stock recommendations. But each service tends to lean heavily in a certain direction. Now if you are a long-term investor then fundamental tools that allow you to identify long-term industry trends are likely more valuable in your technical analysis. Fundamental research tools focus heavily on providing information in ways that visualize the key financial data in unique ways. The service may allow you to use chart patterns and stock scanners to provide information to investors.

Now if you’re a day trader or otherwise focused on short-term trading you’ll find tools for technical analysis more beneficial. A service that’s geared more toward providing this type of analysis may offer alert features, advanced charts, and scanners with filters. Information may also be derived from advice from analysts and market sentiment.

Discovery Tools and News

Financial news articles are another important consideration when looking at stock research platforms. You could uncover potential stocks to look further into. Some of these research platforms also have advice and analysis from experts that can help you make decisions on whether to purchase a stock.

Discovery tools are various algorithm-driven feeds that have stock picks that you might be interested in. Stocks that you have on your watchlist, industries you’ve shown interest in, and your trading history are among the ways that these discovery tools are based on.

Best Stock Research Websites

Before you invest, you should do your due diligence to conduct stock research to cater to your investing strategy. After all, if using a few research tools for less than an hour is how you build a winning stock portfolio, it’s well worth the time. The best stock research websites include Motley Fool, Yahoo Finance, Seeking Alpha, the Wall Street Journal, Google Finance, and  Morningstar. These stock research tools provide insights, analysis, and data that enable investors to make informed decisions when investing in the stock market.

Motley Fool

David and Tom Gardner are the two co-founders who created Motley Fool. What Tom and David Gardner do so well is provide easily digestible stock picks and financial analysis that make it easy for someone who is starting out to comprehend.  It’s one of the best stock research websites out there. You get access to the news and analysis for free. Motley Fool subscribers get 2 new stock picks each month.  Here are the services they offer to investors below.

Motley Fool Stock Advisor

This service from Motley Fool provides stock recommendations that have a cumulative return of nearly 350%! It was started in 2002 and still lead by David and Tom Gardner. Motley Fool Stock Advisor also comes with a list of the 10 Best Starter Stocks to own with any portfolio, detailed market analysis, best buys, two stock picks a month, comprehensive educational resources, and a community of investors.

Motley Fool Stock Advisor beat the market with a track record that stands at 18 years. Some notable picks include Netflix (6/15/2007), Shopify (7/15/2016), and Zoom Video Communications (10/03/2019).  At $99 per year (plus 30 days to cancel for a full refund) every investor should consider this Motley Fool service. You can read our full Motley Fool review here.

Motley Fool Rule Breakers

Another service offered by Motley Fool is Rule Breakers. This is a premium service that features picks by David Gardner. He focuses on companies that have disruptive growth that are the market leaders of the future. Tesla and Baidu are among previous stock recommendations.  Rule Breakers has been available since 2004. It has more than tripled against the S&P 500.

Companies that meet the following attributes are the ones that Rule Breakers look for:

• Sustainable competitive advantage
• Historical growth of the stock price
• Strong leadership teams
• Innovative leadership
• Consumer appeal and branding

You also get two stock recommendations per month with Rule Breakers. It is the same price as Motley Fool Stock Advisor at $99 and also has a 30-day cancellation window. You can compare Rule Breakers and Stock Advisor here or sign up for Rule Breakers below.

Benzinga Pro

Benzinga Pro offers serious investors a digital streaming platform that is packed with valuable research and analysis tools.  This Detroit-based service offers information on every aspect of investing. Their website publishes real-time news articles on what seems like everything that may affect the price of a stock. There are also newsletters that are sent to investors including a pre-market outlook, mid-day update, and an after-market roundup. A pre-market podcast is hosted live and you can also listen to previous podcasts at any time. In addition, they have a video channel that provides updates every weekday morning before the opening bell.

Benzinga Pro is the highlight of their information services. You have access to real-time information on economic and market events. This allows you to get the best stock market news to make better decisions. Their website provides data on ETFs, Cryptos, markets, equities, FinTech, cannabis companies, general investors information, futures, trading, analyst upgrades and downgrades, binary options, futures trading, and more.  Their articles have their own section and include categories like Biotech/FDA, Buybacks, IPOs, M&A, Guidance, and others.

This stock research platform is user-friendly and has features for everyone from the day trader to the long-term investor. One of the key offerings is that you can find key data on stocks like payout ratio, dividend yield, PEG ratio, earnings yield, book value, and EPS diluted. Benzinga Pro has an economic calendar for important dates such as earnings announcements, a watchlist, a movers list, and a stock screener.

There are many resources available for free on this stock research platform including its website, articles, pre-market video and audio streams, newsletter, and analysts’ rating adjustments. There are two packages that you can get: Basic and essential. The basic plan comes with some newsfeed resources, watchlist alerts, and some key details for $99 a month.  The essential plan is $147 a month and adds on features like real-time quotes, full newsfeed access, audio squawk, calendar suite, and more.

Morningstar

One of the largest investment firms in the world, Morningstar is highly respected among investors. Morningstar is an independent source that provides unbiased research, commentary, insight, and analysis to help investors make many types of decisions.  The company started providing the Morningstar Rating on mutual funds in 1985. This rating system is used by investors to help determine which mutual fund to choose among the thousands of options down to one.

Since then, they have added several enhancements and features like Morningstar Premium.  This is one of the trading tools for the long-term investor.  Using Morningstar Premium, you get analyst’s insights and picks. You get over 150 independent, unbiased analysts that provide you with commentary and insights on ETFs, stocks, and mutual funds. There is also an analyst rating that rates a fund on Gold, Silver, Bronze, Neutral, and Negative. Higher ratings indicate the analyst believes that the fund will outperform during the market cycle.

Another one of the key features is investment tracking. Using Morningstar’s Portfolio Manager, you get help with managing your portfolio. It will evaluate your asset allocation and sector weightings to help ensure you are diversifying your holdings properly based on your goals. As a Premium member, you also get full access to the Portfolio X-Ray. There are several tools to help you the allocation and diversification that meet your needs.

Using its screener tools, you can conduct research on mutual funds, ETFs, and stocks to find ones that meet your criteria. These screening criteria can also be saved so when you go back to your research, you can find those investments with fewer clicks. This stock research website is available for $199 per year with a 14-day free trial.

Stock Rover

If you want a stock research website that provides you with a slew of metrics, insights, and useful tools, Stock Rover might be right for you. For the casual investor, the free services may be enough.  You’ll get basic functions like analyst ranking, news, market updates, and delayed quotes. But if you’re one of those investors who want to play seriously in the stock market, you should consider one of their paid plans.

Stock Rover offers their Essentials plan adds portfolio watch lists, more than 240 financial metrics, stock screener, five-years of historical data, real-time email and text alerts, investment comparison tables, and brokerage integration. It comes with a price tag of $79.99 per year. The next tier that Stock Rover offers is their Premium plan. You get everything from the essentials plan plus over 360 financial metrics, 10-years of historical data, data exporting, ranked screening, ETF scanning, trade planning, and rebalancing tools, portfolio and correlation analytics, multi-monitor support, and integrated notes/comments.  Make the best investment decisions with this plan for $179.99 per year.

The Premium Plus adds over 500 financial metrics with customization, portfolio health analysis, higher data limits, screening with equations, and top priority email support. You’ll know the ins and outs of stocks you’re considering with this plan with Stock Rover. This will set you back $279.99 per year.

One additional a la carte offering that Stock Rover offers is their Stock Rover Research Reports. There are over 7000 stocks that are tracked on Research Reports. This comprehensive and unbiased summary can be generated with up to the minute data. Research Reports allows you to take a deep dive into any stock. There are eight pages of information on Research Reports including sections on:

• Overview and Business Summary
• Analyst Consensus Rating
• Quantitative Scores, Fair Value, and Margin of Safety
• Valuation, Growth, Value, Profitability and Returns Analysis
• Peer Comparison Analysis

Research Reports is $49.99 per year when bundled with a yearly or two year Stock Rover plan. You can also get Research Reports separately for $99.99. Making the best investment decisions on stocks is much easier when you have such a powerful resource tool. That’s why Research Reports is a great value-add, especially when combined with a plan.

Zacks Investment Research

This independent market research firm is great for those who want to find the best investment advice for stocks and index funds. You get detailed information about individual stocks. Free content for the casual investor is still very extensive. There are articles, podcasts, and video commentary that cover many topics. Now if you want more tools, for instance, to find the best stock in the S&P 500 to invest in, you can get Zacks Premium.

You’ll get the following:

• Zachs #1 List – Includes top picks that have doubled or more the performance of the S&P 500 from 1988 on.
• Zacks Premium Screen – 45 predefined screens.
• Focus List – This rank list features 50 stocks with high long-term earning potential.
• Industry Rank – Research shows that stocks that are in the top 50% beat stocks at the bottom 50%  of the industry by a factor of 2.
• Style Scores – Value, Growth, and Momentum are all ranked from the stocks on Zack’s #1 list
• Zacks Earning Expected Surprise Prediction Filter – Identifies stocks with the highest probability of upside earnings surprises
• Equity Research Reports – Over 1,000 of the stocks that are most widely followed

You can try out Zach’s Premium for 30 days for free. The service is $299 per year so make sure you look at your credit cards and charge it on the one that will give you the best cashback rewards.

Yahoo Finance

Yahoo Finance was a resource for retail investors who wanted analytic tools, high-quality analysis, and financial news before there was so much competition. Their free offerings are still a nice lineup. Yahoo Finance now offers a Premium package that has:

• Real-time news and stock quotes during trading hours
• Direct trading via linked brokers
• Portfolio watchlist with unlimited stocks
• Interactive stock charts for research and performance monitoring
• Daily trading ideas based on your interests
• Curated investment research
• Advanced portfolio analytics
• Enhanced charting with technical analysis features
• Fair value analysis for listed stocks
• Proprietary leading indicator metrics
• Limited ads and live chat support on the desktop version

If you are trying to make the best investment decision on their unpaid version, you get the first five of these features.  But you’ll probably want to take Yahoo Finance Premium if you have more at stake. Yahoo Finance Premium is available for $34.00 a month or $349.99 annually.

Wall Street Journal

This daily publication is the industry leader in providing timely economic and business news. Wall Street Journal reporters often have decades of experience so you’ll get informative information about what’s happening in the equity markets. Internally produced columns such as Wealth Adviser and Heard on the Street provides insights that you might miss otherwise. Of course, just with any stock advisor, you’ll want to do further research before making a decision.

You can still get paper copies, but the digital experience of the Wall Street Journal is enjoyable. Get all your financial news plus get valuable insights from their editorials which are one of the best out there. Its a trusted, accurate, and reliable resource for all types of investors.

Seeking Alpha

Seeking Alpha has content for both retail and professional investors. It originally started as a community that was powered by contributors. It has evolved to providing great news and analysis that make it today’s Seeking Alpha. Seeking Alpha’s content is available to everyone but if you want their best stuff, you need to become a subscriber.

They offer two plan options. First, there’s Seeking Alpha Premium which delivers unlimited access to their proprietary Seeking Alpha stock and ETF analysis, earnings call transcripts and recordings, additional details about their authors, and proprietary quantitative ratings. The Premium service is available for $239.88 annually or $29.99  monthly.

Seeking Alpha PRO is their other plan option. As a subscriber, you get an ad-free experience and seven day’s head start on all Seeking Alpha investing recommendations. In addition to this stock advisor service, you also get VIP customer support via email and phone and a proprietary Idea Filter. This feature sorts through endless data points to find possible trading opportunities.

Action Alerts Plus

Get stock advisor pics and investing news from Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money. The newsletter is mainly geared toward retirement investors due to its conservative investment philosophy. The service alerts will email you when Cramer recommends a stock be sold or bought. You get to go inside the brain of an industry expert and get his very detailed information about a stock. There are three plan options: $29.99 per month for monthly billing, $299.99 billed annually, and $499.99 for their two-year plan.

TradingView

If you prefer getting your information visually, TradingView offers cloud-based charting and social networking. With a free account, you’ll get basic charting, analysis information, and research.  The Pro version costs $9.95 to $14.95 a month gives you ten alerts and five indicators per chart, an ad-free experience, and access to the social media community.

The Pro+ version adds faster customer service, more alerts, and the ability to use up to four chart layouts. You can also connect with two devices at the same time and save as many as 10 chart layouts. Pricing starts at $19.95 a month for a two-year plan or $24.95 a month for a one-year plan.

Finally, the premium plan gives you everything that Pro+ offers and access to all the TradingView features. You can set up 200 alerts, 25 indicators per chart, get eight charts per layout, use up to five devices, priority customer support. You also get unlimited access to indicator templates, saved chart layouts, and an enhanced watch list. If you go month-month, it’s $59.95 a month, a 12-month subscription drops the price to $49.95  per month, and a two-year plan is $39.95 per month.

Google Finance

This service is free and ideal for DIY investors who are fine with a bare-bones stock research site. You won’t get any stock advisor services but you will get access quick access to the latest market news. Novice investors can use the watchlist feature to build and track portfolios before investing real money into the market.

You get a Currency section where you can see how different currencies are doing against one other. There’s also a Sector Summary that shows you are different industries are doing. Important information such as Price-to-Earnings ratio, earnings per share, and 52-week lows and highs also available. Without a price tag, you don’t get any proprietary research or analysis like the others on this list. But getting headlines and watchlist stocks is still a benefit.

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