Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) saw earnings decline 18.3% in the fourth quarter, with earnings falling short of expectations and the company heading for light earnings in the current quarter.

Revenue rose 20% year over year to $33.67 billion, beating expectations.

However, costs and expenses rose 38%, leading to a decline in operating income, leading to an 8% decline in net income to $10.29 billion.

User metrics were also tight. Daily active users reached 1.93 billion (up 5%), versus Street's estimate of 1.95 billion. And monthly active users of 2.91 billion (up 4%) fell short of expectations of 2.95 billion.

The number of daily active people rose 8% in December to an average of 2.82 billion, and monthly active people were 3.59 billion at the end of the quarter (up 9%).

Notably, the company changed its reporting structure, breaking down the results of its Metaverse efforts into the Reality Labs unit for the first time. Not surprisingly, that unit is far from profitable.

Segment Revenue: App Family, $32.79 billion (up 20%); Reality Labs, $877 million (up 22.3%); Other revenue, $155 million (down 7.7%).

Segment Profit: App Family, $15.89 billion (up 6.8%); Reality Labs, -$3.3 billion (vs. -$2.1 billion last year).

Liquidity was $48 billion at the end of the quarter.

It's driving first-quarter revenue by $27 billion to $29 billion, up 3% to 11% year over year, but less than the $30.3 billion expected. "We expect our year-over-year growth in the first quarter to be impacted by headwinds in both print and price growth."

Impressions should be hampered by "increased competition for people's time and a shift in engagement within our apps to video surfaces like Reels, which are monetized at lower rates than Feed and Stories." As for pricing, he sees several negative factors: overcoming the period when iOS changes were not in effect; overcoming a period of strong demand in the previous year; and foreign currency headwinds.

In Stock News: Meta's Class A common stock will transition from its current FB to the symbol META in the first half of this year. Shareholder actions are not required and your CUSIP number will remain the same.