Is EQT's earnings trajectory improving or worsening?

EQT's earnings trajectory appears to be worsening, as evidenced by the decline in net income and revenue compared to the previous year's fourth quarter. The company's diluted EPS has also decreased, indicating a potential downturn in profitability.

1. **Net Income and Revenue Decline**: EQT's net income decreased by 14.8% to $427.25 million, and total revenue fell by 20.47% to $1.62 billion compared to the same period in the previous year. This decline suggests a weakening financial performance.
2. **Diluted EPS Decrease**: The diluted EPS dropped by 38.94% to $0.69, which is a significant decrease that could be indicative of lower profitability and potentially poorer future earnings outlook.
3. **Analyst Estimates and Market Sentiment**: Despite the negative trends in earnings, analysts at Zacks Research have increased their Q1 2025 EPS estimates for EQT, forecasting $0.85, up from $0.83. However, this optimism is not supported by the broader analyst consensus or recent stock performance. The stock has a mixed analyst rating, with recent upgrades and downgrades, but the average price target of $52.56 suggests a cautious outlook. The increase in short interest to 20,260,000 shares also indicates that investors are betting against the stock's short-term performance.
4. **Future Challenges**: The GF Score of EQT, which is designed to predict future stock performance based on five aspects of valuation, ranks the company poorly, with a score of 67 out of 100. This suggests that EQT may face significant challenges in improving its earnings trajectory in the near term.

In conclusion, while there is some optimism from a few analysts, the overall trends in EQT's earnings, along with the broader analyst sentiment and the GF Score, point to a worsening earnings trajectory for EQT.