An aerial view of the San Francisco skyline on Oct. 20, 2025 in San Francisco, California.<\/p>\n
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images<\/p>\n
San Francisco is on the comeback, which led CNBC to spend a few days to broadcast “Power Lunch”<\/a> from the network’s stunning studios in the city.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014with some names that may surprise you.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Going into this search the Power Lunch team expected most of the stocks would be A.I. related.\u00a0\u00a0We were wrong.<\/p>\n Here’s how we found the names:<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 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<\/a> screen where we can sort by performance over any time frame.<\/p>\n The stock screener surprised us because biotech \u2013 not A.I. \u2013 dominated the results.<\/p>\n Top performing San Francisco stocks – last 3 monthsTicker Name 3Mo%Chg NKTRNektar Therapeutics158.65%REALRealReal, Inc.121.42%PLPlanet Labs PBC Class100.60%RUNSunrun Inc.89.24%MAZEMaze Therapeutics, In83.65%OLMAOlema Pharmaceutical82.59%CRVSCorvus Pharmaceuticals62.15%CYTKCytokinetics, Incorpor61.83%SEPNSepterna, Inc.57.35%ETNB89bio Inc55.48%RIGLRigel Pharmaceuticals,46.17%LYFTLyft, Inc. Class A43.86%RDDTReddit, Inc. Class A43.28%OMDAOmada Health, Inc.42.21%CTMXCytomX Therapeutics,40.42%SOFISoFi Technologies Inc39.91%IRTCiRhythm Technologies32.94%TBPHTheravance Biopharm28.80%ORICOric Pharmaceuticals,19.62%UUnity Software, Inc.13.02%<\/p>\n Source: FactSet, S&P Capital IQ<\/p>\n (Check the Power Lunch page<\/a> all week all week for these exclusive in-depth interviews with the CEOs\u00a0of companies from this screen.)<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Each is working on a different problem, a different disease to cure.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The top performer is Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR)<\/a>, soaring about 150% in the past 90 days. Nektar is developing options to treat both dermatitis and the hair loss condition Alopecia areata.\u00a0FactSet 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.<\/p>\n Second on the screener is a company our viewers and readers may be more familiar with: Sunrun (RUN)<\/a>.\u00a0 The solar power company has doubled in three months, but it wasn’t that smooth.\u00a0RUN shares have gone from $20 to $6 and back above $20 in a year.\u00a0 Sunrun’s CEO Mary Power will join us live on Power Lunch this week.<\/p>\n Third on the San Francisco performance list is also a household name, literally.\u00a0\u00a0The RealReal (REAL)<\/a> 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.\u00a0Some caution may be warranted here as the stock is now trading about $1 dollar above the median price target of analysts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Planet Labs (PL)<\/a> labels itself an ‘earth intelligence’ company. Investors have certainly shown some smarts in snapping up the stock, which has nearly doubled in a year.\u00a0The 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.\u00a0 Shares collapsed to less than $2 last year.\u00a0Traders have made much money in Planet Labs but be mindful it’s a volatile stock.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rounding out our list of ‘San Francisco treats’ (a TV commercial nod<\/a> to those of a certain age) are Fastly (FSLY)<\/a>, Maze Therapeutics (MAZE)<\/a>, Olema Pharmaceuticals (OLMA)<\/a>, Septerna (SEPN)<\/a>, Cytokinetics (CYTK)<\/a> and more.\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n