Warren Buffett reported some bad news in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway investors.

Although Berkshire Hathaway's 2012 income of $14.8 billion was a 45 percent increase from the previous year, according to the New York Times, the Warren Buffett bad news was that company's gains of 14.4 percent lagged behind the broader stock market's gains of 16 percent.

"For the ninth time in 48 years, Berkshire's percentage increase in book value was less than the S&P's percentage gain (a calculation that includes dividends as well as price appreciation)," Buffett wrote in the letter, according to the Epoch Times.

Buffett, who is worth an estimated $54 billion, has a reputation for going against popular trends, with his recent investments being no exception.

At a time where many investors were showing caution, Buffett continues to rack up the acquisitions for Berkshire Hathaway, including last month's $23.6 billion purchase of the Heinz ketchup empire.

Yet Buffett was frustrated at his inability to get a major deal going in 2012.

"I pursued a couple of elephants, but came up empty-handed," the billionaire wrote. "Our luck, however, changed early this year."

The current Warren Buffett investment plan for Berkshire Hathaway, bad news about company growth notwithstanding, is to charge forward with deeper investment in the company's empire.

"There was a lot of hand-wringing last year among CEOs who cried 'uncertainty' when faced with capital allocation decisions (despite many of their businesses having enjoyed record levels of both earnings and cash)," Buffett wrote. "At Berkshire, we didn't share their fears, instead spending a record $9.8 billion on plants and equipment in 2012, about 88% of it in the United States. That's 19% more than we spent in 2011, our previous high."