New York, Feb 20, 2026, 05:44 (EST) — Premarket
- Tempus AI shares were flat in premarket trade after a roughly 14% two-day climb.
- Mizuho started coverage with an Outperform rating and a $100 price target as Tempus rolled out a new HRD-RNA cancer algorithm.
- Next test for the rally: Tempus’ quarterly results on Feb. 24.
Tempus AI, Inc. shares were little changed at $59.96 in premarket trading on Friday after a two-session sprint that left the healthcare-focused AI stock up about 14% since Tuesday’s close. The stock ended Thursday at $59.96, after gaining 6.8% on the day on about 8.37 million shares traded, according to data compiled by Investing.com. (Investing)
The move matters because Tempus is heading into earnings next week with investors trying to pin down what, exactly, turns into revenue: new tools, new tests, or just more noise in a crowded diagnostics market.
It also lands at a moment when initiations and product headlines can swing small-to-mid cap healthcare names sharply, especially those carrying the “AI” tag. Tempus has been that kind of tape.
Mizuho analyst Bradley Bowers initiated coverage on Tempus with an Outperform rating — meaning the broker expects the stock to beat the market — and set a $100 price target, TipRanks reported, citing The Fly. In the note, Bowers said Tempus operates in a core precision-oncology diagnostics market he pegged at about $40 billion, and wrote that it is growing roughly 30% a year. (TipRanks)
Tempus, for its part, said on Wednesday it launched a new pan-cancer “HRD-RNA” algorithm aimed at identifying tumors with homologous recombination deficiency, or HRD — a breakdown in a cell’s DNA repair system that can help guide treatment choices. The company said HRD-RNA is designed to spot patients more likely to respond to platinum chemotherapy or PARP inhibitors, a class of cancer drugs, and expects clinical availability later this year; the test is currently for research use only. “By looking at the transcriptome, we can identify a functional HRD status that is more dynamic than what can be seen in the genome alone,” Chief Development Officer Halla Nimeiri said in the release. (Nasdaq)
Tempus competes for attention — and budgets — with other oncology testing and data players, where uptake tends to hinge on clinical evidence, reimbursement, and how quickly hospitals and drugmakers change habits.
Investors now turn to Feb. 24, when Tempus is due to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results after the market close, followed by a conference call at 4:30 p.m. ET. (Tempus)
But the setup cuts both ways. The new HRD-RNA tool is not yet a clinical product, and the company’s own timeline puts the commercial inflection later in the year — leaving the stock exposed if earnings fail to show momentum, or if the market decides the latest burst of optimism has run ahead of proof.
