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San Francisco is making a comeback. So are these stocks from the City by the Bay
An aerial view of the San Francisco skyline on Oct. 20, 2025 in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
San Francisco is on the comeback, which led CNBC to spend a few days to broadcast “Power Lunch” from the network’s stunning studios in the city.
Ahead of this special programming, I sought to find the companies based in the city that were making investors the most money this year. Just as the city itself defies expectations, so did this stock search —with some names that may surprise you.
San Francisco is one of the world’s great cities. Culture, food, beauty and business power the peninsula. Yes, the city has problems, but finding great stocks to invest in from the area is not one of them, if you know where to look.
Going into this search the Power Lunch team expected most of the stocks would be A.I. related. We were wrong.
Here’s how we found the names:
- First, we screened for companies headquartered in the area using S&P Capital IQ. We chose San Francisco proper with just an added touch of the south side. We did not screen for Silicon Valley. While close, if you know the area you also know that the Valley is really a separate world from San Francisco itself. It’s not far down the 101, but it’s far enough to be a different place. Silicon Valley is out.
- Next, we filtered out companies with market caps under $500 million. They generally don’t have enough trading volume to be noteworthy. That eliminates more companies. The remaining stocks wed then added to a FactSet screen where we can sort by performance over any time frame.
The stock screener surprised us because biotech – not A.I. – dominated the results.
Top performing San Francisco stocks – last 3 months
| Ticker | Name | 3Mo%Chg |
|---|---|---|
| NKTR | Nektar Therapeutics | 158.65% |
| REAL | RealReal, Inc. | 121.42% |
| PL | Planet Labs PBC Class | 100.60% |
| RUN | Sunrun Inc. | 89.24% |
| MAZE | Maze Therapeutics, In | 83.65% |
| OLMA | Olema Pharmaceutical | 82.59% |
| CRVS | Corvus Pharmaceuticals | 62.15% |
| CYTK | Cytokinetics, Incorpor | 61.83% |
| SEPN | Septerna, Inc. | 57.35% |
| ETNB | 89bio Inc | 55.48% |
| RIGL | Rigel Pharmaceuticals, | 46.17% |
| LYFT | Lyft, Inc. Class A | 43.86% |
| RDDT | Reddit, Inc. Class A | 43.28% |
| OMDA | Omada Health, Inc. | 42.21% |
| CTMX | CytomX Therapeutics, | 40.42% |
| SOFI | SoFi Technologies Inc | 39.91% |
| IRTC | iRhythm Technologies | 32.94% |
| TBPH | Theravance Biopharm | 28.80% |
| ORIC | Oric Pharmaceuticals, | 19.62% |
| U | Unity Software, Inc. | 13.02% |
Source: FactSet, S&P Capital IQ
(Check the Power Lunch page all week all week for these exclusive in-depth interviews with the CEOs of companies from this screen.)
They are names you may never have heard about, but they’ve made money for people who’ve been able to identify and invest in them.
Each is working on a different problem, a different disease to cure.
They are all unique in their own way, except one: they’ve agreed to come into our San Francisco bureau and sit down with us for interviews.
The companies that have rocked the region for investors over the past three months are a majority biotech, but also include a clothing resale company, a solar power & storage company and an ‘earth intelligence’ company.
The top performer is Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR), soaring about 150% in the past 90 days. Nektar is developing options to treat both dermatitis and the hair loss condition Alopecia areata. FactSet shows that the 9 analysts who cover Nektar have a bullish average price target of $93.60 on the stock, about a 50% jump from here.
Second on the screener is a company our viewers and readers may be more familiar with: Sunrun (RUN). The solar power company has doubled in three months, but it wasn’t that smooth. RUN shares have gone from $20 to $6 and back above $20 in a year. Sunrun’s CEO Mary Power will join us live on Power Lunch this week.
Third on the San Francisco performance list is also a household name, literally. The RealReal (REAL) wants to take what in your closet and sell it to those looking for discounts on higher end or luxury clothes, bags, shoes and more. Some caution may be warranted here as the stock is now trading about $1 dollar above the median price target of analysts.
Planet Labs (PL) labels itself an ‘earth intelligence’ company. Investors have certainly shown some smarts in snapping up the stock, which has nearly doubled in a year. The 15-year old company has also seen sales more than double over the last four years. As with Sunrun, it’s not been a smooth ride for stockholders. Shares collapsed to less than $2 last year. Traders have made much money in Planet Labs but be mindful it’s a volatile stock.
Rounding out our list of ‘San Francisco treats’ (a TV commercial nod to those of a certain age) are Fastly (FSLY), Maze Therapeutics (MAZE), Olema Pharmaceuticals (OLMA), Septerna (SEPN), Cytokinetics (CYTK) and more. They’ve all had a big few months, particularly as investors fall back in love with many of the biotech and medical science companies trying to rid the world of some terrible conditions.
The look from CNBC’s TV set is so good that people ask if it’s fake. It’s not. Behind where we sit you see the bay, the Bay bridge, and just a touch of Treasure Island, where my father was stationed in the Navy in the 1960s. It’s so good you almost wish it was fake.
We will be speaking with a number of these companies from that set over the next few days here in California. You can and should watch all the interviews. They are available, exclusively, here on the Power Lunch page.
