Why CuriosityStream Inc (CURI) is Surging in 2025
The communication services sector has been one of Wall Street's most dynamic performers so far this year. The sector has a lot of breadth and encompasses everything from traditional telecom giants to digital advertising platforms and streaming entertainment providers, so the sector hardly moves in tandem.
What makes this sector particularly intriguing is how different subsegments are thriving for entirely different reasons. Tech-oriented communication stocks have capitalized on AI, whereas telecom stalwarts have found strength through 5G network expansion, which is finally becoming the dominant communication standard this year.
Understanding these market leaders provides both defensive positioning opportunities and exposure to some of the most innovative companies.
Even during bear markets, there are pockets of the market that perform exceptionally well. For example, I identified in another article.
For this article, I screened the best-performing communication services stocks year-to-date.
I will also mention the number of hedge fund investors in these stocks. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points ().
An experienced broadcasting team gathered in a studio in front of a television monitor.
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 6
CuriosityStream Inc (NASDAQ:CURI) is a global streaming platform that specializes in factual entertainment, offering documentaries and series covering science, nature, history, technology, and more.
The biggest catalyst for CuriosityStream's stock surge in 2025 has been the announcement of new third-party content licensing deals worth over $7 million.
These agreements are expected to significantly boost revenue and align with analysts' forecasts of 13% growth for the year.
Another major driver has been the company's strategy to expand content and data licensing, especially for AI model training, which management indicated could generate licensing revenue exceeding half of its direct subscription revenue for the year.
CuriosityStream also reported strong Q4 2024 earnings, beating revenue expectations with $14.1 million and achieving record adjusted free cash flow of $3.3 million, alongside a gross margin improvement to 52% and ending the year with $39.7 million in cash and no debt.
The consensus price target of $3 implies 14.3% downside.
CURI stock is up 132.45% year-to-date.
Overall, CURI ranks 3rd on our list of communication services stocks that are up the most so far in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of CURI, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CURI but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this .
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
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