Burry's Scion bets on Warner Brother Discovery, restaurant firms - filings

GEN Restaurant

14/02/2024 19:21

By David Randall
       NEW YORK, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Hedge fund manager Michael
Burry, known for his prescient calls ahead of the 2008 U.S.
housing market crash, picked up shares of Warner Brothers
Discovery  WBD.O  in the fourth quarter of 2023 while closing
out a put option position on semiconductor stocks, securities
filings released on Wednesday showed.
    Burry's Scion Asset Management added 375,000 shares of
Warner Brothers Discovery over the quarter. Other new additions
included 200,000 shares of restaurant software company Toast Inc
 TOST.N , 225,000 shares of discount retail chain Big Lots
 BIG.N  and 154,142 shares of Gen Restaurant Group  GENK.O . 
    Meanwhile, the fund closed out a put option position on the
iShares Semiconductor ETF  SOXX.O  that in the third quarter of
2023 had a notional value of $47.4 million. Put options benefit
from a decline in the underlying shares, though it was not clear
if the position was part of a larger trade. The ETF jumped 8.7%
over the fourth quarter. 
    Burry also closed out a put position on Bookings Holdings
and a 400,00 share position in automaker Stellantis  STLAM.MI 
in the quarter.
    The positions were revealed in securities fillings known as
13-fs that hedge funds and other institutional investors file at
the end of each quarter. While they are backward-looking and do
not reveal current holdings or short positions, the filings are
one of the few ways to see the portfolios of often-secretive
funds. 
    Shares of Warner Brothers Discovery are down 15%
year-to-date, while shares of Big Lots are down nearly 55% over
the same time. Toast Inc shares are up roughly 7.5% and Gen
Restaurant Group up slightly more than 13%. 
    Burry's largest holdings overall are Alibaba Group Holdings
and JD.com Inc, both of which have fallen 6% or more for the
year to date amid concerns over slowing growth in the Chinese
economy.

 (Reporting by David Randall; Additional reporting by Saqib
Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Ira Iosebashvili and Josie Kao)
 ((David.Randall@thomsonreuters.com; 646-223-6607; Reuters
Messaging: david.randall.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))