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Texas Pacific Land Trust (NYSE:TPL) has a long and storied past.
According to Wikipedia:
The company was formed in 1888 when the Texas and Pacific Railway went bankrupt. The Trust received title to some 3,500,000 acres of land in West Texas. The intention of the Trust was to slowly liquidate the land over time with the proceeds going to continuing operations and buying back the shares of the Trust. In the late 1880s, no one knew that underneath all of this West Texas land lay vast quantities of oil and gas. Over the next century, TPL sold off about 75 percent of their land holdings. Even after doing this, TPL is still one of the largest landowners in Texas. As of December 31, 2018, the Trust owned 901,939 acres in 20 different West Texas counties. The Trust obtains its income from land sales, oil and gas royalties, grazing rights and leases and investment income.
As I stated above, the Trust uses this income to buy back shares of the Trust. From 2004 to 2018, the Trust, through its policy of buybacks, has reduced the share count by over 29%. From 10,971,375 shares in 2004, to 7,762,000 at the end of 2018.
The increased interest and capability of the Permian Basin and surrounding areas have greatly benefited TPL. Since 2014, TPL's revenue growth rate has been 48% a year. Over this same time frame, TPL's net income has grown by 49% a year.
Despite all of this good news, TPL's stock price has languished since the
