Facebook Profit Down, Revenue Up, Stock Down in Q4

It a day of ups and down for Facebook, who reported their Q4 earnings today. While they beat expectations, their stock still fell 4.3% do $29..91 in after-hours trading.

Facebook earned $64 million, or 3 cents per share, in the October-December period. That's down quite a bit from $360 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier when it was still a privately held company.
Revenue, however, rose 40% to $1.59 billion, up from $1.13 billion.
Excluding special items, mainly related to stock compensation expenses, Facebook earned 17 cents per share in the latest quarter.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected lower adjusted earnings of 15 cents per share on revenue of $1.51 billion.

Facebook managed to make between $1.38 and $1.54 per user this quarter. By comparison, Google makes about $7.14 per user, Verizon FiOS makes up to $444 per user, and AT&T's mobile division makes $198, while Twitter makes about $0.74 per user. 

Facebook's mobile advertising results particularly stood out. Over the quarter, Facebook's overall ad revenue rose 41% to $1.33 billion from a year ago, with mobile ads making up 23% of the total.
In the prior quarter, mobile revenue was $153 million, or 14% of total advertising revenue.
That stat is good for Facebook, as investors have been worried that Facebook would not be able to make money from mobile. And, seeing as 680 million people use Facebook on their phones, and 157 million people use Facebook only from mobile, making money on mobile is incredibly important.
CEO Mark Zuckerburg even flat out said "I want to dispel this myth that Facebook can't make money on mobile."

It's also important to note that Facebook's non-advertising revenue is growing (see chart above). This is important because, at a certain point, Facebook simply won't be able to display any more ads, so its good to have a backup plan for revenue growth.