In 1973, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B) held its first annual meeting in the cafeteria of one of its subsidiaries and drew a few dozen people. This past weekend, Omaha, Nebraska, was the destination for roughly 40,000 investors to attend Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting.

The insatiable lure for these investors is the chance to listen to investing great Warren Buffett speak for hours on end about his company, the U.S. economy, and the stock market. After all, the "Oracle of Omaha," as he's jovially known by the investing community, has delivered a nearly 4,900,000% aggregate return for his company's Class A shareholders (BRK.A) since becoming CEO in the mid-1960s, and practically doubled up the annualized total return, including dividends, of the benchmark S 500 over the same timeline.

While plenty of investing wisdom was bestowed on shareholders at Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting, it's the company's first-quarter operating results that really stole the show -- and have given optimists little to cheer about.

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Source Fool.com