Michael Burry Current Investments: A Real-World Case Study for Investors
Michael Burry's current investments, as disclosed through Scion Asset Management's most recent 13F filings, reveal a concentrated contrarian portfolio that continues to ignore consensus and focus on assets trading far below intrinsic value. Tracking his current holdings tells you less about specific tickers to copy and more about a repeatable analytical process: find where narrative and valuation have diverged, check the balance sheet can survive the thesis playing out slowly, and buy with a margin of safety that protects against being wrong.
This case study walks through the documented patterns in Burry's recent picks and what they teach about real-world deep-value analysis. You can cross-reference each position against the fundamental data in our guru tracker.
Key Takeaways
- Scion's 13F filings are the primary public window into Burry's current investments, with a mandatory 45-day reporting lag after each quarter-end.
- His disclosed positions consistently trade at low current ratios relative to price, with balance sheets that show genuine asset coverage rather than goodwill inflation.
- Burry's case study positions illustrate the margin of safety framework: paying 60-70 cents for a dollar of documented asset value.
- The current ratio, a measure of short-term liquidity, appears in Burry's analysis as a filter against companies that cannot survive a prolonged holding period.
- Holdings rotate frequently: what Burry owned six months ago may not be what he owns today, so understanding the thesis matters more than copying the ticker.
- Comparing Scion's disclosed positions to fundamental screening tools reveals the overlap between deep-value analysis and quantitative factor investing.
The 45-Day Lag and What It Means for Investors
Every 13F tells you what a manager owned at quarter-end. The SEC gives managers 45 days to file after the quarter closes, which means the latest data you can ever see is roughly 45 days stale before it is even published. For a high-turnover fund like Scion, which has posted quarterly turnover rates of 40-60%, the current investments you read about in a news article may already be gone.
This is not a reason to ignore the filings. It is a reason to focus on the thesis rather than the ticker. When Burry bought shares of a distressed retailer or an out-of-favor financial in a past quarter, the investment case was not "this stock will go up." It was "this stock is priced as if the business is worth less than its documented assets, and that is mathematically incorrect." That type of analysis does not expire in 45 days.
Case Study: The Anatomy of a Burry Position
To understand Michael Burry's current investment approach, it is useful to reconstruct the anatomy of positions he has publicly discussed or that have been analyzed from SEC filings over the 2020-2026 period.
A prototypical Scion position at time of purchase looks like this:
| Characteristic | Typical Range | Industry Context |
|---|---|---|
| Price-to-book | 0.5x - 1.5x | S&P 500 median: 4.2x |
| Price-to-earnings (trailing) | 7x - 13x | S&P 500 median: 22x |
| Current ratio | 1.2x - 2.5x | Minimum for liquidity safety |
| Debt-to-equity | Below 1.0x | Structural solvency buffer |
| Free cash flow yield | 8% - 15% | Confirms earnings quality |
| Insider ownership | Above 5% | Alignment signal |
The current ratio column is worth examining closely. A current ratio above 1.0x means current assets exceed current liabilities. Burry is not looking for financially stressed businesses; he is looking for businesses that are operationally sound but narratively out of favor. The current ratio helps filter the genuinely distressed (avoid) from the temporarily mispriced (consider).
What Is the Current Ratio and Why Burry Uses It
The current ratio equals current assets divided by current liabilities. A ratio of 2.0x means the company holds two dollars of liquid assets for every dollar of near-term obligations. Burry has written about balance sheet conservatism as a prerequisite for deep-value positions: you cannot benefit from mean reversion if the company runs out of cash before the market recognizes the mispricing.
A ratio below 1.0x signals potential short-term solvency stress. A ratio above 3.0x can indicate poor capital management, excess cash sitting idle rather than being returned to shareholders or invested in the business. The sweet spot Burry targets sits between 1.5x and 2.5x for most asset-heavy businesses: enough liquidity to weather a downturn, not so much that management is refusing to allocate capital.
Calculating it from a financial statement is straightforward. Current assets (cash, receivables, inventory, prepaid expenses) are listed on the balance sheet. Current liabilities (accounts payable, short-term debt, accrued expenses) are listed below them. Divide the former by the latter. Run this number across five years to spot trends. A deteriorating current ratio in a cyclical business at the bottom of a cycle can be a buying signal if you understand why it is declining.
The Graham Number and Margin of Safety in Practice
The two metrics that most directly underpin Burry's position sizing are the Graham Number and the margin of safety. The Graham Number estimates the maximum fair price for a stock based on its earnings per share and book value per share. Any stock trading meaningfully below its Graham Number has a quantifiable margin of safety embedded in the purchase price.
Burry does not buy at the Graham Number. He buys significantly below it, typically targeting stocks trading at 60-70% of their calculated Graham Number. That 30-40% discount represents the margin of safety: the buffer that protects against errors in the earnings estimate, unexpected write-downs to book value, or delays in the market recognizing the mispricing.
Compare this to how most retail investors approach stocks. The average S&P 500 stock in April 2026 trades at a P/E around 22x and a P/B around 4.2x, deep into the territory where the Graham Number analysis would say "overpriced." Apple at a P/E of 28.3 has a strong business case but a thin margin of safety on a pure Graham basis. Microsoft at 32.1x P/E is pricing in flawless execution. Burry's approach accepts lower-quality businesses in exchange for prices that price in failure, when the failure is unlikely to actually occur.
What the S&P 500 Current Value Tells You About Burry's Positioning
The current value of the S&P 500 matters to Burry's investment approach because his contrarian positioning becomes more extreme when broad market valuations are elevated. When the S&P 500 trades at historically high multiples, the gap between what the market will pay for consensus and what Burry will pay for deep value widens.
As of early 2026, the S&P 500 trades at a trailing P/E in the low-to-mid 20s, above the long-run average of roughly 16x. At that valuation level, Burry's hunting ground, stocks trading at 7-13x earnings with significant asset coverage, represents a small and shrinking fraction of the total market. That scarcity is one reason Scion's position count stays low: there are simply fewer names meeting the criteria at any given time.
The Dow Jones index, which sits around 42,800 as of April 2026, reflects similar valuation pressures. Its median P/E of roughly 22.8x leaves little room for the kind of discount that defines a Burry entry point. He is not fishing in the Dow Jones index. He looks for the overlooked corners of the market.
Return on Equity as a Thesis-Validation Tool
Once Burry establishes that a stock is cheap on a price-to-book or Graham Number basis, he checks whether the business historically generates acceptable returns on equity. A low ROE suggests the business cannot compound at reasonable rates even if it is cheap today. A temporarily depressed ROE, caused by a one-time write-down, a cyclical downturn, or a restructuring charge, is more interesting: the historical ROE gives you a baseline for what the business can earn when conditions normalize.
The distinction matters for sizing. A stock at 0.8x book with a 15% normalized ROE implies the business will earn 15% of its purchase price annually once conditions normalize. That is a compelling expected return without requiring any re-rating of the multiple. Add multiple expansion as the thesis plays out, and the return profile improves further.
Following Burry's Investment Logic Without Copying His Trades
The lesson of Burry's current investment approach is not to own what he owns. The lesson is to understand the analytical process. You can apply the same framework to the full universe of stocks using our guru tracker and screener, which tracks 120+ fundamental indicators across 73 global exchanges.
Filter for stocks below their Graham Number. Apply a current ratio minimum. Set a free cash flow yield floor. Screen for insider ownership above a threshold. What emerges is the same universe Burry searches through manually, now accessible as a quantified list.
Further reading: SEC EDGAR · Investopedia
Why michael burry portfolio 2026 Matters
This section anchors the discussion on michael burry portfolio 2026. The detailed treatment, formula, and worked examples appear in the body of this article above. The points below summarize the most important takeaways for value investors who want to apply michael burry portfolio 2026 in real portfolio decisions. ValueMarkers exposes the underlying data on every covered ticker via the screener and stock profile pages, so the concepts in this article translate directly into actionable filters.
Key inputs for michael burry portfolio 2026
See the main discussion of michael burry portfolio 2026 in the sections above for the full treatment, including the inputs, the calculation methodology, the typical sector benchmarks, and the most common pitfalls to avoid. The ValueMarkers screener lets value investors filter the full universe of 100,000+ stocks across 73 exchanges using michael burry portfolio 2026 alongside the rest of the 120-indicator composite, with sector percentiles and historical trends shown on every stock profile.
Sector benchmarks for michael burry portfolio 2026
See the main discussion of michael burry portfolio 2026 in the sections above for the full treatment, including the inputs, the calculation methodology, the typical sector benchmarks, and the most common pitfalls to avoid. The ValueMarkers screener lets value investors filter the full universe of 100,000+ stocks across 73 exchanges using michael burry portfolio 2026 alongside the rest of the 120-indicator composite, with sector percentiles and historical trends shown on every stock profile.
Related ValueMarkers Resources
- Graham Number — Graham Number captures how cheaply a stock trades relative to its fundamentals
- Margin of Safety — Margin of Safety expresses how cheaply a stock trades relative to its fundamentals
- Roe — Glossary entry for Roe
- Michael Burry Scion Asset Management — related ValueMarkers analysis
- Benjamin Graham — related ValueMarkers analysis
- Johnson And Johnson Financial Ratios — related ValueMarkers analysis
- Define Intrinsic Value — related ValueMarkers analysis
- Economic Moat — related ValueMarkers analysis
Frequently Asked Questions
what is a good current ratio
A good current ratio is generally considered to be between 1.5x and 2.5x for most industrial and consumer businesses. A ratio below 1.0x means current liabilities exceed current assets, which signals potential short-term liquidity stress. A ratio above 3.0x can indicate that management is holding excess cash rather than deploying capital productively. The right range varies by industry: retailers often operate efficiently with ratios near 1.2x, while manufacturers may need 2.0x or higher to manage inventory cycles.
what is current ratio
The current ratio is a liquidity ratio that measures a company's ability to meet its short-term obligations using its short-term assets. It is calculated by dividing current assets by current liabilities. Both figures come from the balance sheet. A ratio of 2.0x means the company holds two dollars of current assets for every dollar of current liabilities, giving it a meaningful buffer against short-term financial stress.
what is the current value of the s&p 500
The current value of the S&P 500 changes every trading second and sits in the mid-5,000s as of early April 2026, reflecting a trailing price-to-earnings ratio in the low-to-mid 20s. You can check the live level through any brokerage platform or financial data site under the ticker SPX or ^GSPC. The valuation context matters more than the absolute level: at a P/E of 22x, the index is pricing in continued earnings growth above historical norms.
what is the current ratio
The current ratio equals current assets divided by current liabilities, both drawn from the balance sheet as of the same reporting date. It measures short-term liquidity. A company with $300 million in current assets and $150 million in current liabilities has a current ratio of 2.0x. Analysts use it alongside the quick ratio (which excludes inventory) to get a cleaner view of liquid asset coverage for businesses where inventory takes time to convert to cash.
what is the current dow jones index
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sits around 42,800 as of early April 2026. It is a price-weighted index of 30 large-cap U.S. companies, calculated by summing the share prices of all 30 constituents and dividing by the Dow Divisor, currently around 0.163. The level changes during market hours from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern and is tracked under the ticker DJIA or.DJI on most financial platforms.
how to calculate current ratio from financial statement
To calculate the current ratio from a financial statement, open the balance sheet and locate current assets (typically including cash, accounts receivable, inventories, and prepaid expenses) and current liabilities (typically including accounts payable, short-term debt, and accrued liabilities). Divide the total current assets by the total current liabilities. Both line items are clearly labeled on most published balance sheets. For annual reports, the balance sheet appears in the financial statements section, either after the income statement or as a standalone exhibit.
Written by Javier Sanz, Founder of ValueMarkers. Last updated April 2026.
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Disclaimer: This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.