Michael Burry bets on CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery, restaurant firms

Hedge fund manager Michael Burry, known for his prescient calls ahead of the 2008 US housing market crash, picked up shares of Warner Bros. Discovery 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 the parent of CNN over the quarter.

Other new additions included 200,000 shares of restaurant software company Toast Inc., 225,000 shares of discount retail chain Big Lots and 154,142 shares of Gen Restaurant Group.

Meanwhile, the fund closed out a put option position on the iShares Semiconductor ETF 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 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 Bros. Discovery, which is reportedly eyeing a merger with Paramount Global, 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, both of which have fallen 6% or more for the year to date amid concerns over slowing growth in the Chinese economy.