'Big Short' fund manager Burry dumps portfolio, buys prison stock

Reuters

Published Aug 15, 2022 03:05PM ET

By David Randall

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Scion Asset Management fund manager Michael Burry, who rose to fame with timely bets against housing ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, in the last quarter dumped a dozen bullish positions and replaced them with a new stake in prison company Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) Inc, according to filings released on Monday.

Shares of Geo Group rose 12% on Monday, the largest one-day rally in the company since June 2021, according to Refinitv data. At current prices, Burry's position is worth approximately $3.9 million. Shares of the company, which has a market value of $852 million, are down 1.6% for the year to date.

Burry, who frequently deletes his tweets, suggested on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) on Sunday that the 18% gain in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index since the start of the third quarter is likely to reverse.

"Can't shake that silly pre-Enron, pre-9/11, pre-WorldCom feeling," he wrote, referring to three events which contributed to an approximately 75% decline in the Nasdaq between February 2000 and September 2002.

Filings known as 13-f are one of the few quarterly disclosures that hedge fund managers make of their long positions -- bets that a stock will rise -- and may not reflect current holdings. Fund managers are not required to disclose short positions, which profit when a company's shares fall.