San Francisco is making a comeback. So are these stocks from the City by the Bay
Aerial view of the Golden Gate Bridge in front of the San Francisco skyline on October 20, 2025 in Sausalito, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
San Francisco is in a comeback phase, causing CNBC to take a few days to broadcast “Power Lunch” from its magnificent studios in the city.
Before this special program, I tried to find the companies in the city that made the most money for investors this year. Just as the city itself defies expectations, this stock survey also turned up some names that might surprise you.
San Francisco is one of the largest cities in the world. Culture, food, beauty and business power the peninsula. Yes, the city has its problems, but finding great stocks to invest in from the area isn’t one of them if you know where to look.
Going into this search, the Power Lunch team expected most of the stocks to be AI-related. We were wrong.
Here’s how we came up with the names:
- First, we screened companies headquartered in the region using S&P Capital IQ. We conveniently chose San Francisco, touching on the south side a little more. We didn’t screen for Silicon Valley. When you’re nearby, if you know the area, you know that the Valley truly is a world apart from San Francisco. It’s not down the 101, but it’s far enough to be a different place. Silicon Valley is out.
- We then filtered out companies with market capitalizations below $500 million. They generally do not have enough trading volume to be significant. This eliminates more companies. Remaining stocks were then assembled Information Set The screen where we can sort by performance in any time period.
The stock screener surprised us because the results were dominated by biotechnology, not artificial intelligence.
Best performing San Francisco stocks in the last 3 months
| ticker | Name | 3Month%Change |
|---|---|---|
| NKTR | Nectar Treatments | 158.65% |
| REAL | RealReal, Inc. | 121.42% |
| P.L. | Planet Labs PBC Classroom | 100.60% |
| TO RUN | Sunrun Inc. | 89.24% |
| MAZE | Maze Therapeutics, | 83.65% |
| BEING | Olema Pharmaceuticals | 82.59% |
| CRVs | Corvus Pharmaceuticals | 62.15% |
| CYTK | Cytokinetics, Incorpor | 61.83% |
| SEPTEMBER | 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 Biopharma | 28.80% |
| ORIC | Oric Pharmaceuticals, | 19.62% |
| you | Birlik Yazılım A.Ş. | 13.02% |
Source: FactSet, S&P Capital IQ
(Check Power Lunch page You can access these special in-depth interviews with the CEOs of the companies on this screen all week long.)
These are names you may have never heard of, but they have made money for people who can identify them and invest in them.
Each one is working on a different problem, a different disease to treat.
All of them are unique in their own way, except one: They agreed to come to our San Francisco office and sit with us for interviews.
The majority of companies shaking up the region for investors in the last three months are biotech, but also include a clothing sales company, a solar energy and storage company and a ‘location intelligence’ company.
The top performer, Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR), is up nearly 150% in the last 90 days. Nektar is developing options to treat both dermatitis and the hair loss condition Alopecia Areata. FactSet shows that 9 analysts covering Nektar have an average bullish target for the stock of $93.60, an upside of 50%.
In second place in the elimination is a company that our viewers and readers may be more familiar with: Sunrun (RUN). The solar company doubled in size in three months, but things weren’t so smooth. RUN shares went from $20 to $6 and back above $20 in one year. Sunrun’s CEO, Mary Power, will join us live this week at Power Lunch.
Third on the San Francisco act list, he’s literally a household name. The RealReal (REAL) wants to take what’s in your closet and sell it to those looking for discounts on high-end or luxury clothing, bags, shoes and more. Some caution may be needed here, as the stock is currently trading around $1 above analysts’ average price target.
Planet Labs (PL) bills itself as a ‘ground intelligence’ company. Investors were certainly wise to buy shares that have nearly doubled in a year. The 15-year-old company has also seen sales more than double in the past four years. As with Sunrun, it hasn’t been a smooth ride for shareholders. Shares fell below $2 last year. Investors have made a lot of money in Planet Labs, but keep in mind that this is a volatile stock.
Rounding out our list of ‘San Francisco treats’ (one TV commercial nods for those of a certain age) Fastly (FSLY), Maze Therapeutics (MAZE), Olema Pharmaceuticals (OLMA), Septerna (SEPN), Cytokinetics (CYTK) and more. They’ve all had a momentous few months, especially at a time when investors are falling back in love with many of the biotech and medical science companies trying to save the world from some dire circumstances.
The look of CNBC television is so good that people ask if it’s fake. Not so. Behind where we sit you see the bay, the Gulf Bridge, and a small portion of Treasure Island, where my father served in the Navy in the 1960s. It’s so good you almost wish it was fake.
We’ll be talking to some of these companies on this set in California over the next few days. You can and should watch all the interviews. These are only available from the Power Lunch page.
