There are a handful of companies I follow whose management teams have consistently demonstrated strong capital allocation skills and a rational approach to decision-making. Importantly, these businesses operate in industries that I believe are unlikely to face obsolescence anytime soon. As a result, I think tracking their share repurchase activity over time could prove to be a valuable exercise.

Looking back, having a tracker like this would have made it much easier to recognize just how attractively valued some of these companies were at various points in the past. While hindsight is always clearer, my hope is that building this tracker will help uncover similar opportunities in the future.

The companies I am currently tracking are:

1. Berkshire Hathaway Inc

2. Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited

3. Markel Group Inc

4. Total Energy Services Inc

I’m being selective about which companies make it onto this list. A history of share repurchases alone isn’t enough, since not all buybacks create shareholder value. Instead, I want companies with a long enough track record to demonstrate a willingness to repurchase shares aggressively when management believes the stock is materially undervalued. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I’m certain there are other companies that meet these criteria. If you know of any worthy additions, please share them in the comments.

I will post updates as new quarterly data becomes available.

A couple of points about the data in the graphs:

• I have included the initials of the key capital allocators for each year. For example: WEB = Warren E. Buffett, GEA = Greg E. Abel, and VPW = V. Prem Watsa.

• For the latest year, the data reflects the most recently available quarter.

1. Berkshire Hathaway Inc

2. Fairfax Financial Holding Limited

Note:

• The buyback includes shares bought for treasury that are used for share based employee incentive plans. As this data is only available since 2014, I have the graph from 2014 onwards.

• Fairfax Financial is primarily listed in the TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange) but their financials are in USD.

3. Markel Group Inc

4. Total Energy Services Inc

Note: Dollars are in CAD

Disclaimer: The author currently holds positions in Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK-B), Fairfax Financial ($FFH.TO/$FRFHF), and Total Energy Services ($TOT.TO/$TOTZF). These positions are subject to change without notice. Nothing on this blog constitutes investment or financial advice. Please see the full disclaimer here.