Deepti Sri
7 min read
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His long book delivered a split verdict: nine of 17 tracked holdings rose, while eight fell, with Veeva and Adobe leading the charge.
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Several purchases paid off from Burry’s disclosed entry points, including MercadoLibre and Zoetis.
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Timing softened the blow: Nebius, Micron and SOXX moved below Burry’s later short entries, while Palantir was a clear miss.
“The Big Short” investor Michael Burry spent August buying beaten-down stocks and betting against the market’s AI favorites, producing a mixed scorecard as several well-timed trades paid off even while the broader tech rally challenged his bearish stance.
In August, Burry disclosed purchases of out-of-favor stocks including MercadoLibre (MELI), Zoetis (ZTS), Lululemon Athletica (LULU) and Molina Healthcare (MOH). He also expanded shorts against Palantir Technologies (PLTR), Nvidia (NVDA), Oracle (ORCL), Micron Technology (MU) and Nebius Group (NBIS).
Burry Builds His Value Stock Book
Burry began August by positioning against the “pod shops’ favorite trade”: going long undervalued, out-of-favor securities while shorting the AI narrative, the memory cycle and other highly valued momentum favorites. He called several of his long positions “BETS,” short for “brutally euphoria-truculent stocks.” The group included Adobe (ADBE), Temple & Webster (TPLWF), Zoetis, Lululemon, Molina Healthcare and Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM).
Burry compared the market with the dot-com bubble, when inexpensive, easily understood businesses struggled as tech stocks hit their peak, only to outperform after the Nasdaq collapsed. “No one can time an era-defining top,” Burry said on Sunday, arguing that investors could still prepare without moving overwhelmingly into cash or “shorting everything to our oblivion.”
He had already spent the month acting on the same view. Burry sold DraftKings (DKNG) on Aug.5 and more than doubled his Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) position, lowering its average cost into the $98s. He called Flutter a “fat pitch,” though the stock fell 2.6% in August, while DraftKings gained 7.6%.
Over the following week, he added to Fiserv (FISV), Freddie Mac (FMCC), MercadoLibre, Lululemon, Zoetis and Molina. Between Aug. 18 and Aug. 20, he bought more Birkenstock (BIRK), Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW), Temple & Webster, Sprouts, Lululemon, Molina and MercadoLibre. The additions lifted Lululemon to 17.4% of his portfolio, MercadoLibre to 12%, and Molina and Temple & Webster to 9% each, according to Burry’s disclosures.
