‘Big Short’ fund manager Burry buys another prison stock

By Carolina Mandl

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Scion Asset Management’s Michael Burry, known for his timely bets against housing ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, added five new companies to his portfolio in the last quarter including prison operator CoreCivic, filings released on Monday showed.

The move comes after fund manager Burry dumped a dozen positions in the second quarter, including Facebook parent Meta Platforms, and replaced them with a new stake in prison company Geo Group Inc.

A regulatory filing on Monday showed he bought roughly 1.5 million additional shares in Geo Group in the third quarter. At current prices, Scion’s position is worth $17.3 million, the biggest in his portfolio. Burry also added $7.8 million stake in CoreCivic, the filing showed.

Other names Scion added in the quarter are telecoms groups Liberty Latin America Ltd and Charter Communications Inc, aerospace and defense company Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc, and video commerce firm Qurate Retail Inc.

Shares in Geo Group, CoreCivic and Aerojet are up year-to-date, outperforming the S&P 500, which is down 16.3% on the year. Liberty and Qurate are down 28.5% and 76% on the year respectively.

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.

(Reporting by Carolina Mandl in New York; Editing by Jan Harvey)