Is TEM a Buy or a Sell? The Bull and Bear Case (2026)

Last updated July 2026

Short answer

Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested. The bull case for Tempus AI (TEM) rests on Explosive Revenue Growth with a Clear Path to Profitability: Tempus grew full-year 2025 revenue roughly 83% year-over-year to approximately $1.27 billion, then guided for $1.59 billion in 2026, representing continued strong growth. The bear case rests on tempus remains unprofitable on a GAAP basis, with a full-year 2025 net loss of $245 million (which included $136 million in stock-based compensation), and the path to sustained GAAP profitability is long; Q1 2026 showed a net loss of $125.9 million, widening 85% year-over-year, and EPS missed analyst estimates by 34%. Analysts covering it publish targets from $35.00 to $100.00 against a $41.85 price, so even the professionals disagree by 98% of their own average. We do not give a verdict. What follows is each case at full strength, so you can decide which set of assumptions you actually believe. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Tempus AI (NASDAQ: TEM) is a Chicago-based technology company that applies artificial intelligence to precision medicine, primarily in oncology but increasingly across cardiology, neuropsychiatry, and hereditary conditions. It operates two interconnected business lines: a diagnostics segment that performs next-generation sequencing (NGS), PCR profiling, molecular pathology, and hereditary genetic tests through CAP-accredited, CLIA-certified laboratories, charging on a per-test basis; and a Data and Applications segment that licenses de-identified, linked clinical, molecular, and imaging datasets to life sciences companies (Insights), offers clinical trial matching (Trials), and deploys AI-powered algorithm products for physicians (Algos) and an AI platform called Next. Approximately 95% of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies use Tempus data or trial services, and the platform has integrations across more than 7,000 physicians and hundreds of research partners, creating a self-reinforcing network where clinical volume generates data that improves AI models and attracts more customers. Tempus was founded in 2015 by Eric Lefkofsky, a Chicago technology entrepreneur, after his wife's 2014 breast cancer diagnosis exposed how underutilized data and AI were in cancer care. The company initially focused on oncology genomics before expanding into cardiology (through the 2023 acquisition of Mpirik), radiology AI (through the 2022 acquisition of Arterys), digital pathology AI (through the 2025 acquisition of Paige AI), pharmacogenomics (through the 2025 acquisition of OneOme), and hereditary genetics (through the early-2025 acquisition of Ambry Genetics for approximately $600 million). Tempus went public on the Nasdaq in June 2024 under the ticker TEM. Eric Lefkofsky continues to serve as Founder and CEO.

The bull case: what would have to be true for $100.00

The most optimistic published target on TEM is $100.00, +138.9% from the $41.85 price as of July 2026. Getting there needs the following to work close to its best case, not merely to avoid going wrong.

Explosive Revenue Growth with a Clear Path to Profitability

Tempus grew full-year 2025 revenue roughly 83% year-over-year to approximately $1.27 billion, then guided for $1.59 billion in 2026, representing continued strong growth. Adjusted EBITDA improved by approximately $97 million in 2025 to nearly breakeven (negative $7.4 million), and the company guided for positive Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $65 million in 2026, signaling an inflection toward operational profitability.

Data Licensing as a High-Margin Flywheel

The Data and Applications segment, which includes Insights data licensing, grew 31% in 2025 to $316 million and carries higher margins than diagnostics. Because the incremental cost of licensing existing data is low, each new pharma contract adds disproportionately to gross profit. Net Revenue Retention in the Insights product was 140% as of 2024, indicating that existing customers expand their spend substantially year over year.

Network Effects and Moat from Scale

With more than 200 petabytes of multimodal clinical data, over 100 patents protecting core algorithms, and deep EMR integrations that embed Tempus into clinical workflows, the platform becomes harder to displace as it grows. Replicating this scale of longitudinal, linked clinical and molecular data would require years and hundreds of millions of dollars, raising switching costs for both health systems and pharmaceutical partners.

Expanding Addressable Market Beyond Oncology

Through acquisitions of Paige AI (digital pathology), OneOme (pharmacogenomics), and Ambry Genetics (hereditary conditions), Tempus has extended its platform well beyond its oncology roots. The company cites a $70 billion opportunity in biomarker tests across just oncology and neuropsychology, while its pharma partners collectively spent over $262 billion globally on R&D in 2023, a pool from which data and trial services can draw recurring revenue.

The bear case: what would have to be true for $35.00

The most pessimistic published target is $35.00, -16.4% from the current price. That is not a floor and not a forecast; it is roughly what one analyst thinks Tempus AI is worth if the risks below bite instead of the drivers above.

Tempus remains unprofitable on a GAAP basis, with a full-year 2025 net loss of $245 million (which included $136 million in stock-based compensation), and the path to sustained GAAP profitability is long; Q1 2026 showed a net loss of $125.9 million, widening 85% year-over-year, and EPS missed analyst estimates by 34%. Reimbursement risk is material: a significant portion of Tempus's diagnostics revenue depends on favorable coverage decisions from CMS and private payers, and adverse rulings on NGS tests or laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) could reduce revenue per test sharply. Regulatory scrutiny of LDTs by the FDA, ongoing data privacy obligations under HIPAA, and the risk that competitors such as Guardant Health, Illumina, Roche, or PathAI develop comparable datasets or lower-priced tests could compress both volume growth and pricing power over time.

The bear case deserves the same attention as the bull case, and usually gets less. If you are holding TEM already, the question is not whether these risks exist but whether any of them has moved from possible to actually happening in the reported numbers.

Where analysts land on TEM

14 analysts cover TEM, with an average target of $66.57 (+59.1% against $41.85) and a split of 8 buy, 7 hold, 1 sell. Bear in mind sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market, so that split is not a balanced vote. The full target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted are on the TEM forecast and price target page.

How is TEM valued? (as of 2026-06-27)

Price
$41.85
Market cap
$7.54B
Forward P/E
-528.61
Price / book
18.02
Beta
3.46
52-week range
$40.77 to $104.32

Snapshot for TEM as of July 2026, sourced from Yahoo Finance and may be delayed. Valuation figures move with price and earnings; verify the current numbers with your broker before deciding.

  • Revenue (FY2025, reported): ~$1.27 billion
  • Revenue (TTM, as of Q1 2026): ~$1.36 billion
  • Q1 2026 Revenue (most recent quarter): ~$348 million (up 36% YoY)
  • Gross Margin (FY2025): ~63%
  • Net Loss (FY2025): ~($245) million (GAAP)
  • Adjusted EBITDA (FY2025): ~($7.4) million (near breakeven)
  • Market Capitalization: ~$9.0 billion
  • Price / Sales (TTM): ~6.6x
  • P/E Ratio (TTM): Not meaningful (company not yet profitable)
  • 2026 Revenue Guidance: ~$1.59 billion

Tempus trades at roughly 6.6 times trailing twelve-month revenue, a premium that reflects the market pricing in a future where its data-licensing flywheel generates high-margin recurring revenue at scale. The P/E ratio is not meaningful today because the company is not yet GAAP profitable, but consensus estimates suggest the first meaningful earnings could arrive by 2028, and the company's own guidance calls for positive Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $65 million in 2026. The gross margin of approximately 63% is already at software-like levels and has expanded significantly as the higher-margin Data and Applications segment grows faster than diagnostics.

How do you decide if TEM is a buy?

Rather than asking whether TEM is a buy in the abstract, it tends to help to answer four questions:

  • Thesis: do you believe the bull case above, and is it still true today?
  • Time horizon: a single stock can be volatile, so a longer horizon absorbs more of the swings.
  • Position sizing: a thesis can be right and the sizing still wrong; decide how much of your portfolio one name should be.
  • Overlap: check whether you already hold TEM indirectly through an index or sector ETF before adding more.

What would change your mind on TEM

Write the tripwires down before you need them. Deciding what would falsify your view is far harder once a position is moving against you.

  • Bull case breaks if: Explosive Revenue Growth with a Clear Path to Profitability stalls in the reported numbers rather than in the narrative around them.
  • Bear case breaks if: tempus remains unprofitable on a GAAP basis, with a full-year 2025 net loss of $245 million (which included $136 million in stock-based compensation), and the path to sustained GAAP profitability is long; Q1 2026 showed a net loss of $125.9 million, widening 85% year-over-year, and EPS missed analyst estimates by 34% fails to materialise over several reporting periods while the drivers keep compounding.
  • Neither matters if: the position has grown large enough that being wrong would damage the whole portfolio. Sizing overrides the argument.

For the full picture, see the TEM stock guide (what the company does, the ETFs that hold it, similar stocks, and the themes it fits). In Walnut you can ask its AI about TEM against your real portfolio and see your actual exposure before deciding.

Investing in Tempus AI with AI

Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how TEM fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.

FAQ

Is TEM a good stock to buy right now?

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That depends on which case you find more convincing, and both are on this page. The bull case rests on Explosive Revenue Growth with a Clear Path to Profitability, with revenue (fy2025, reported) at ~$1.27 billion. The bear case rests on tempus remains unprofitable on a GAAP basis, with a full-year 2025 net loss of $245 million (which included $136 million in stock-based compensation), and the path to sustained GAAP profitability is long; Q1 2026 showed a net loss of $125.9 million, widening 85% year-over-year, and EPS missed analyst estimates by 34%. Analysts covering it are spread from $35.00 to $100.00, which is itself a signal that this is genuinely contested. If you believe the thesis, the real questions become sizing and overlap rather than timing. Walnut is not an investment adviser and this is not a recommendation.

Should I sell TEM?

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Nobody can answer that for you, and the honest version of the question is narrower: has anything changed in the reason you bought it? The bear case on this page is the place to check. Tempus remains unprofitable on a GAAP basis, with a full-year 2025 net loss of $245 million (which included $136 million in stock-based compensation), and the path to sustained GAAP profitability is long; Q1 2026 showed a net loss of $125.9 million, widening 85% year-over-year, and EPS missed analyst estimates by 34%. If that risk is what you were worried about and it is now playing out, that is a real signal. If the price simply fell while the thesis held, that is a different situation entirely. The most pessimistic published target is $35.00, -16.4% from the $41.85 price, which is one analyst's downside case rather than a floor. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

What is the bull case for TEM?

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Explosive Revenue Growth with a Clear Path to Profitability. Tempus grew full-year 2025 revenue roughly 83% year-over-year to approximately $1.27 billion, then guided for $1.59 billion in 2026, representing continued strong growth. The most optimistic analyst target on TEM is $100.00, +138.9% from the $41.85 price. That figure is only reachable if this thesis works close to its best case.

What is the bear case for TEM?

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Tempus remains unprofitable on a GAAP basis, with a full-year 2025 net loss of $245 million (which included $136 million in stock-based compensation), and the path to sustained GAAP profitability is long; Q1 2026 showed a net loss of $125.9 million, widening 85% year-over-year, and EPS missed analyst estimates by 34%. Reimbursement risk is material: a significant portion of Tempus's diagnostics revenue depends on favorable coverage decisions from CMS and private payers, and adverse rulings on NGS tests or laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) could reduce revenue per test sharply. Regulatory scrutiny of LDTs by the FDA, ongoing data privacy obligations under HIPAA, and the risk that competitors such as Guardant Health, Illumina, Roche, or PathAI develop comparable datasets or lower-priced tests could compress both volume growth and pricing power over time. The most pessimistic published target is $35.00, -16.4% from the current price, which is roughly what the stock is worth if these risks bite rather than the drivers.

What does Tempus AI do?

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Tempus AI (NASDAQ: TEM) is a Chicago-based technology company that applies artificial intelligence to precision medicine, primarily in oncology but increasingly across cardiology,

What would have to change for TEM to stop being worth holding?

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Decide that in advance, because it is far harder to think clearly once a position is moving against you. The concrete tripwires here: the driver behind the bull case (Explosive Revenue Growth with a Clear Path to Profitability) stalling in the reported numbers rather than in the narrative, the risk above (tempus remains unprofitable on a GAAP basis, with a full-year 2025 net loss of $245 million (which included $136 million in stock-based compensation), and the path to sustained GAAP profitability is long; Q1 2026 showed a net loss of $125.9 million, widening 85% year-over-year, and EPS missed analyst estimates by 34%) turning from a possibility into a reported fact, or the position growing large enough that a bad outcome would matter to your whole portfolio regardless of who is right.

What does Tempus AI actually do?

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Tempus AI runs a two-sided platform in healthcare. On one side, it performs genomic and molecular diagnostic tests (NGS, hereditary genetics, pharmacogenomics) for patients through its CLIA-certified labs, generating revenue per test. On the other side, it licenses the de-identified, linked clinical and molecular data from those tests to pharmaceutical companies, health systems, and researchers who use it for drug development, clinical trials, and AI model training.

Is TEM a good stock to buy right now?

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That depends entirely on an investor's risk tolerance, time horizon, and view on whether Tempus can convert rapid revenue growth into durable profitability. The bull case is a compounding data flywheel in a massive market; the bear case is that the company is not yet GAAP profitable, net losses widened in Q1 2026, and the valuation at roughly 6.6 times trailing revenue already prices in significant success. Neither outcome is certain.

Does TEM pay a dividend?

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No. Tempus AI does not pay a dividend. The company is in a high-growth, pre-profitability phase and retains all available capital for operations, acquisitions, and R&D investment. Investors in TEM are generally seeking capital appreciation from growth, not income from distributions.

Walnut is informational, not investment advice, and gives no verdict on TEM. Analyst targets referenced here come from a July 2026 pull of published third-party research and change constantly. Verify current figures with your broker before acting on them.

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