Michael Burry Scion Asset Management by the Numbers: A Data Analysis for Investors
Michael Burry's Scion Asset Management runs one of the most concentrated and contrarian portfolios among any SEC-reporting fund manager, and the 13F filings that document it are a masterclass in deep-value construction. Scion typically holds between five and fifteen positions, turns over the book frequently, and has no interest in consensus. The fund became famous for shorting subprime mortgage securities ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, a trade documented in Michael Lewis's book "The Big Short." Since then, Burry has run Scion as a private fund exempt from standard mutual fund registration, but required to file quarterly 13F reports disclosing U.S. equity long positions above $100,000.
This post pulls the numbers from those filings and runs them through the same value and quality lenses we apply in our guru tracker, which monitors Scion and 40+ other legendary investors in real time.
Key Takeaways
- Scion Asset Management files 13Fs with the SEC, disclosing U.S. long equity positions as of each quarter-end, typically with a 45-day reporting lag.
- Burry concentrates heavily: his top three holdings often represent 60-80% of disclosed portfolio value, far above the typical hedge fund concentration.
- His stock picks cluster around low price-to-book ratios, distressed or overlooked sectors, and companies with significant insider ownership or share buyback programs.
- Asset turnover is one of the financial ratios Burry examines to assess whether a business is generating revenue efficiently from its asset base.
- The margin of safety concept, drawn from Benjamin Graham, underpins almost every Scion position: buy below intrinsic value, hold with conviction, exit when the thesis plays out.
- Tracking Scion with a 45-day lag means you are always behind, but the fundamental patterns in his picks can still inform your own screening process.
How Scion Asset Management Actually Works
Scion Asset Management is a Cupertino, California-based investment firm that Burry founded in 2000 and resurrected in 2013 after a brief wind-down. It operates as a limited partnership exempt from Investment Company Act registration, which is why it does not publish a prospectus or hold public shares. The fund accepts capital from qualified investors, a legal category covering institutions and high-net-worth individuals meeting SEC wealth thresholds.
The operational structure gives Burry wide latitude. He can hold concentrated positions without index-tracking constraints. He can short stocks, buy options, and take positions in non-U.S. securities that never appear in the 13F at all. The 13F only captures U.S. equity longs above $100,000 at quarter-end. It misses shorts entirely, which is a critical caveat given that Burry has publicly discussed macro short positions in government bonds, index ETFs, and individual names.
What the 13F Filings Actually Reveal
Each Scion 13F lands on the SEC EDGAR system within 45 days of the quarter's close. The filing lists every U.S. equity long position held at quarter-end, sorted by market value. From these, you can calculate position concentration, sector tilts, and turnover rate.
Across the filings from 2020 to early 2026, several patterns hold consistently.
| Metric | Scion Asset Management | Typical Hedge Fund |
|---|---|---|
| Average number of positions | 8-15 | 50-100 |
| Top 3 positions as % of portfolio | 60-80% | 20-35% |
| Average quarterly turnover | 40-60% | 20-30% |
| Sector concentration | Contrarian / distressed | Diversified |
| Typical P/B of holdings | Below 1.5x | 2-4x |
| Typical P/E of holdings | Below 12x | 18-25x |
The concentration data is striking. When Burry commits to a position, it is not a 2% allocation. It is a conviction bet. His 2021-2022 filings showed single positions representing 30%+ of disclosed portfolio value. That is not a style most retail investors should replicate without deep research, but the stock selection process behind it is worth studying.
The Fundamental Signature of a Scion Stock Pick
Running Scion's disclosed picks from 2020 to early 2026 through a fundamental screen reveals a consistent signature. Burry does not pay high multiples. He does not pay fair value for growth. He buys businesses that are cheap on a Graham Number or price-to-book basis, often because the sector is out of favor or the company has recently disappointed the market.
The Graham Number, a key metric in our glossary, combines earnings per share and book value to estimate a maximum fair price. Mathematically: Graham Number = square root of (22.5 x EPS x Book Value per Share). A stock trading at 70% of its Graham Number has a substantial margin of safety embedded in the purchase price. Burry's picks frequently meet this criterion at entry.
Common characteristics of Scion positions at time of purchase:
- Price-to-book below 1.5x, often below 1.0x
- Price-to-earnings below 12x trailing
- Free cash flow yield above 8%
- Significant insider buying or buyback authorization
- Sector or narrative out of favor with the broader market
Asset Turnover: Why Burry Cares About Operational Efficiency
Asset turnover is a ratio Burry has referenced in investor letters and public commentary as a baseline efficiency check. The formula is straightforward: Revenue divided by Total Assets. A higher ratio means the business generates more revenue per dollar of assets deployed. A falling ratio, especially when combined with rising debt, signals deteriorating capital efficiency.
For capital-intensive businesses like retailers or manufacturers, asset turnover in the range of 1.5x to 2.5x is normal. For asset-light businesses, ratios above 3x are common. The ratio is most useful as a trend indicator. A company whose asset turnover has declined from 2.0x to 1.2x over five years while revenues stagnated is consuming capital without generating proportional revenue growth.
Burry applies this lens particularly to retail and consumer names, sectors he has returned to repeatedly. When a retailer's asset turnover is still strong but the stock is trading at distressed prices due to sentiment, that combination signals potential mispricing.
How Financial Ratios Guide Portfolio Management at Scion
Beyond individual stock metrics, Burry has spoken about the role of financial ratios in portfolio construction. The question of how management can use financial ratios extends to fund managers: ratios like debt-to-equity, interest coverage, and return on equity help distinguish businesses that can survive a thesis playing out slowly from those that cannot.
At Scion, the emphasis falls on balance sheet integrity. Burry avoids companies with debt loads that would threaten solvency in a downturn. He looks for conservative capital structures, companies where the equity cushion provides time for the value thesis to play out. This is why the margin of safety concept is not just about price but also about financial structure.
A position can have a low price-to-book ratio and still carry excessive risk if the book value is inflated by goodwill or the capital structure cannot support a multi-year holding period through a revenue decline.
Comparing Scion to Other Value-Oriented Funds
Burry is not the only manager running a concentrated value book, but his approach differs from peers in specific ways.
| Manager | Fund | Typical Positions | Style | Primary Metric |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Burry | Scion Asset Management | 8-15 | Deep value, contrarian | P/B, Graham Number |
| Bill Ackman | Pershing Square | 8-12 | Activist value | FCF yield, IRR |
| Warren Buffett | Berkshire Hathaway | 40-50 public | Quality-at-price | ROIC, competitive moat |
| Seth Klarman | Baupost Group | 30-50 | Distressed, event-driven | Asset coverage, liquidation value |
| Joel Greenblatt | Gotham | 30-50 | Quantitative value | EBIT/EV, ROIC |
The differences matter. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) trades at a P/B of roughly 1.5x and reflects a portfolio of high-ROIC businesses like Apple (P/E 28.3, ROIC 45.1%) and Coca-Cola (P/E 23.7, yield 3.0%). Scion's picks tend to trade at steeper discounts to book with lower quality scores, reflecting a higher tolerance for distress in exchange for a larger margin of safety.
Using Financial Data Analysis Tools to Track Scion
The practical question for individual investors is whether following Scion's 13F filings adds value to a portfolio. The answer depends on how you use the data. Copying positions mechanically, with a 45-day lag, without understanding the thesis, is not a strategy. Using the filings as a screening filter is more defensible.
Financial data analysis tools designed for portfolio management can help bridge that gap. Our guru tracker surfaces each new Scion 13F filing alongside the fundamental data for every disclosed position: P/E, P/B, Graham Number proximity, ROIC, debt ratios, and free cash flow yield. You can see what Burry bought, what the stock looked like on fundamentals at the time of purchase, and how those fundamentals have evolved since.
That is a more rigorous use of 13F data than headline "Michael Burry bought X" articles provide.
Further reading: SEC EDGAR · Investopedia
Why michael burry portfolio Matters
This section anchors the discussion on michael burry portfolio. 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 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
See the main discussion of michael burry portfolio 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 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
See the main discussion of michael burry portfolio 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 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
- Pb Ratio — Glossary entry for Pb Ratio
- Margin of Safety — Margin of Safety expresses how cheaply a stock trades relative to its fundamentals
- Michael Burry Current Investments — 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 asset turnover
Asset turnover is a financial efficiency ratio that measures how much revenue a company generates for every dollar of assets on its balance sheet. Calculated as Revenue divided by Total Assets, it tells you how productively management is deploying the company's resources. A manufacturing company with $500 million in revenue and $250 million in total assets has an asset turnover of 2.0x.
what is asset turnover ratio
The asset turnover ratio is the same measure expressed as a numerical ratio: Revenue divided by Average Total Assets for the period. Using average assets rather than period-end assets smooths out the effect of large asset purchases or sales during the year. A ratio above 1.0x means the business is generating more than one dollar of revenue for each dollar of assets it holds.
how to calculate asset turnover
To calculate asset turnover, divide net revenue by average total assets. Average total assets equals the sum of beginning-period and ending-period total assets divided by two. For example, a company with $800 million in revenue, $400 million in assets at year-start, and $500 million at year-end has an asset turnover of 800 / 450 = 1.78x. A declining ratio over multiple years warrants investigation into whether new asset investments are translating into revenue growth.
how can management use financial ratios
Management uses financial ratios to identify operational inefficiencies, benchmark performance against industry peers, and guide capital allocation decisions. Asset turnover helps management assess whether the asset base is sized appropriately for revenue levels. Return on equity and ROIC help boards evaluate whether retained earnings are being deployed at returns above the cost of capital. Debt-to-equity and interest coverage ratios signal whether the capital structure can absorb a revenue decline.
how do financial data analysis tools compare for portfolio management
Financial data analysis tools vary significantly in the depth of fundamental data they provide, the number of metrics tracked, and the quality of screener functionality. Platforms like ValueMarkers track 120+ indicators across 73 global exchanges, including ROIC, Graham Number proximity, Piotroski F-Score, and free cash flow yield, which gives you the ability to replicate the fundamental analysis behind guru investors like Burry without manually pulling SEC filings and financial statements.
how to calculate asset turnover ratio
The formula is: Asset Turnover = Net Revenue / Average Total Assets. Step one: find net revenue from the income statement. Step two: calculate average total assets by adding beginning and ending total assets from the balance sheet and dividing by two. Step three: divide. The result is expressed as a number (not a percentage). Compare the ratio across three to five years to identify trends, and compare it to industry peers to assess relative efficiency.
Written by Javier Sanz, Founder of ValueMarkers. Last updated April 2026.
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