Few things in the world of investing are as highly anticipated as Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A, BRK:B), and this year missive didn’t disappoint.

Indeed, in order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Warren Buffett’s acquisition of Berkshire Hathaway — once a struggling New England textile firm — Buffett issued an especially long rumination in the company’s past, present and future.

Although there were no big surprises, the annual letter didn’t disappoint. As usual, it was packed with folksy wisdom, important investing lessons and frank mea culpas. There was just so much more of it this year. This year’s letter came in at 43 pages and 25,000 words. Last year’s letter was 24 pages and less than 15,000 words.

The basics messages didn’t change, however, and anyone looking for Warren Buffett or his partner Charlie Munger to announce something momentous was to be disappointed. That said, the annual letter was still as great a read as always.

First, the nuts and bolts of Berkshire Hathaway’s performance. Net profit slipped in the final quarter of 2014, falling to $4.16 billion, or $2,529 a Class A share, compared with $4.99 billion, or $2,297 a share, a year earlier.

Operating earnings, which exclude some investment results — and are what Wall Street analysts focus on — grew to $2,412 a Class A share from $2,297 a share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were looking for operating earnings of $2,701. So that’s a miss, but not one anyone cares about, least of all Warren Buffett or anyone else at Berkshire Hathaway.

As for Warren Buffett’s preferred measure of performance, book value per Class A share increased by 8.3% to $146,186 last year.

When benchmarking Berkshire Hathaway against the broader market last year, the company came up short by Warren Buffett’s preferred measure, but beat by pretty much everyone else’s. The company’s 8.3% gain in book value trailed the S&P 500’s return of 13.7%. On the other hand, Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price rose 27% to beat the broader market by a wide margin.

Warren Buffett Highlights

As for apologies for past mistakes, Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway had a good year on all fronts except for one. The company’s most important non-insurance business BNSF Railway simply doesn’t have the capacity to keep up with demand amid bumper grain harvests and surging production of crude oil, causing widespread shipment delays for customers.

Warren Buffett pledged to spend $6 billion on the railway in 2015 to bring service back up to industry-leading levels.

A notable highlight from the letter included confirmation that the company has chosen a successor to Warren Buffett — but it still isn’t saying who. Either Ajit Jain, who oversees the company’s reinsurance business, or Greg Abel, head of the energy business, are said to be the most-likely candidates to succeed Buffett as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Interestingly, on the dividend front, Buffett said it’s possible that Berkshire Hathaway may be forced to pay one in the next 10 to 20 years, because at some point, the company’s earnings and resources will reach a level that “will not allow management to intelligently reinvest all of the company’s earnings.”

As for Berkshire Hathaway’s investment portfolio, Warren Buffett stands behind the Big Four — American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO), International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM) and Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC). Although a strong dollar and other factors will make this a hard year for this group, over time they will deliver substantial aggregate earnings growth.

Warren Buffett once again explained that low interest rate will cause the company’s insurance businesses to continue its “dismal record of earning subnormal returns.” He also argued against breaking up the conglomerate that is Berkshire Hathaway, among many of his other favorite themes.

Although there’s nothing new in this year’s letter, that’s okay. Warren Buffet’s arguments and proclamations remain timeless as ever.

As of this writing, Dan Burrows did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.