Michael Burry's Scion Asset Management scoops up shares of Alphabet, Amazon

By Joseph Adinolfi

Burry bought shares of more than a dozen stocks last quarter, according to an SEC filing.

Michael Burry's Scion Asset Management scooped up shares of Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) during the fourth quarter of 2023, part of a shopping spree that saw his fund open positions in more than a dozen stocks.

After drawing attention last year for holding bearish puts against the S&P 500, the Nasdaq-100 and a basket of semiconductor stocks, Burry apparently sold the last of these puts and instead added more long positions to his portfolio in the fourth quarter. The value investor expanded the number of individual holdings in his portfolio from 13 to 25, the most since the second quarter of 2023.

He dumped some of his earlier holdings, including Crescent Energy Co. (CRGY) and Stellantis NV (STLA), while buying shares of a dozen other companies, including American Coastal Insurance Corp. (ACIC), Big Lots Inc. (BIG), Block Inc. (SQ), Bruker Corp. (BRKR), Citigroup Inc. (C), CVS Health Corp. (CVS), MGM Resorts (MGM), Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), among others.

The new purchases caused the value of his equity holdings to increase to $95 million from $44 million.

That Burry would buy market leaders like Amazon and Alphabet is notable given his warning early last year that the tech-led market rebound wouldn't last.

Burry also boosted his holdings of Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba Group Holding (BABA) and JD.com Inc. (JD) Chinese stocks have struggled early this year, prompting some on Wall Street to speculate that the Chinese stock market may have finally found a bottom after three years of declines.

Having developed a reputation as a skilled value investor in the late 1990s and early aughts, Burry shot to international fame with his massive bet against the U.S. mid-2000s housing bubble, which was chronicled in Michael Lewis's book, "The Big Short." The book was later made into a feature film where Burry was portrayed by actor Christian Bale.

Hedge funds like Burry's are required by the SEC to report their holdings every quarter. The snapshot only includes holdings on the final day of the quarter, so there's no guarantee that the data still represents an accurate picture of Burry's portfolio.

-Joseph Adinolfi

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02-14-24 1551ET

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