ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, August 29, 2026, 04:11 (ET)
- Stock Advisor now advertises a 987% average return since February 2002.
- The comparable S&P 500 return is 215%, a 772-point gap.
- The figure averages every recommendation; it is not a subscriber portfolio return.
- Stock Advisor costs $199 yearly, with a current $99 introductory offer.
Search interest in “fool” rose as Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor performance claim approached a tenfold average return. The service’s official page showed 987% on Saturday, up from the 964% figure captured in an earlier trend snapshot.
The update matters less for its 23-point change than for what moved. Stock Advisor marks hundreds of historical recommendations to current prices. A strong session for old winners can shift the headline without changing any new pick.
Motley Fool says its recommendations averaged 987% from February 2002 through August 29, 2026. The S&P 500 comparison averaged 215% over matching holding periods. Both figures include reinvested dividends Stock Advisor.
That creates a 772-percentage-point lead. The advertised terminal return is 4.59 times the benchmark figure. It does not mean a member’s account compounded at that rate.
| Metric | Current reading | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Stock Advisor average | +987% | Average of all recommendations |
| Matched S&P 500 average | +215% | Benchmark from each pick date |
| Performance gap | 772 percentage points | Historical, not forward-looking |
| List price | $199 per year | 0.80% of suggested $25,000 portfolio |
| Introductory price | $99 | Renews at the then-current list price |
| New picks | Two monthly | Requires repeated capital allocation |
Motley Fool’s support page explains the calculation. It takes the arithmetic average of active and sold recommendations from each recommendation-day close. The benchmark is averaged from the same dates performance methodology.
This differs from a funded portfolio. A real investor adds money at different dates and position sizes. Taxes, trading costs and missed recommendations can widen the gap.
The service itself recommends patience and breadth. Members receive two picks monthly and are encouraged to own more than 50 positions. Motley Fool lists $25,000 as the suggested portfolio size.
At that portfolio size, the $199 annual fee equals 0.80% of capital. The $99 introductory price equals 0.40%. Those percentages fall as portfolio size rises, but stock-specific risk remains.
The record includes extreme early winners. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) was shown up 139,827% from an April 2005 recommendation. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) was shown up 42,957% from December 2004.
Those gains are valid historical observations. They also pull an arithmetic average sharply higher. A member joining in 2026 cannot purchase those shares at their original recommendation prices.
An academic study published in 2017 found that Stock Advisor recommendations generated significant abnormal returns in its sample. The authors also examined market-adjusted portfolios rather than relying only on the service’s headline average study abstract.
The risks are straightforward. Future picks may underperform, concentrated growth exposure can deepen drawdowns, and historical outliers may not repeat. Past performance offers evidence, not a forecast.
The useful investor takeaway is methodological. The 987% claim measures the average history of recommendations. A buyer should judge the service against the return of the portfolio they can actually fund and maintain.
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