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Burry calls Birkenstock a full position at 30% discount to fair value

August 27, 2026 10:05 AM

Investing.com - Michael Burry added to his Birkenstock Holding (NYSE: BIRK) stake in the mid-$30s and declared it a "full position" in a Substack post published August 26, according to reporting by TradingView/Stocktwits. BIRK is currently trading at approximately $35.17, a level that Investing.com analysis puts at a 30.3% discount to a fair value estimate of $45.84 and nearly 47% below the analyst consensus price target.

Birkenstock is the sole direct equity expression of Burry's long thesis here. As a publicly traded consumer brand (NYSE: BIRK) with a concentrated ownership structure and a recently diluted float, every incremental signal from a prominent long investor carries outsized weight on short interest and options pricing.

Burry's timing is notable. Birkenstock reported Q3 2026 adjusted EPS of EUR 0.74, up 19% year on year, and raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance to at least EUR 710 million, per the earnings call transcript published by The Motley Fool on August 20. The company also lifted its fiscal 2026 revenue growth guidance to 15% in constant currency, targeting the upper end of a EUR 2,300–2,350 million range. Despite those figures, the stock fell 9.4% on the announcement day, August 23, weighed by a concurrent $1.00 billion follow-on equity offering paired with a $500 million share buyback priced at $39.18, according to Simply Wall St. At that offering price, the $1.0 billion issuance added roughly 25.5 million new shares while the $500 million buyback retired approximately 12.8 million, leaving a net addition of about 12.7 million shares — a distinction that matters because it determines whether the dilution overhang is structural or can be fully offset by the repurchase program over time.

That selloff compounded an earlier earnings miss. BIRK's fiscal Q4 GAAP EPS came in at $0.85 per share against a consensus estimate of $0.86, marking the second consecutive quarterly miss, per AAII. The stock has fallen approximately 11.8% since that August 13 report. A brief pre-market bounce of roughly 6.6% on August 25, as short sellers covered near the 52-week low, set up the entry window Burry appears to have used.

The Scion Asset Management founder's apparent thesis rests on brand durability against a deep-value entry price. Birkenstock's sandal and clog franchise has maintained pricing power through multiple consumer cycles, and the raised EBITDA floor suggests management sees margin durability even after absorbing the cost of a heavily discounted secondary offering.

The Birkenstock long sits inside a broader portfolio that leans distinctly bearish on technology. Burry simultaneously disclosed fresh short positions against Oracle, Palantir, Nebius, and Caterpillar, bringing total short stock exposure to more than 21% of his portfolio, excluding put options, per his Substack. He also expanded a long in Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC), adding shares in the mid-$5s, as reported by BeInCrypto via Yahoo Finance on August 27. The barbell of a consumer brand long against AI-linked shorts reflects a consistent theme in Burry's recent positioning: skepticism toward high-multiple growth equities and a preference for tangible-asset or cash-flow stories trading well below fair value.

The key upcoming test for Burry's BIRK thesis is the company's next quarterly earnings report. Consensus EPS for that period stands at $0.54 per share, per AAII, though the exact reporting date has not been confirmed in available sources. That print will reveal whether the Q3 revenue momentum is translating into the profitability trajectory the raised EBITDA guidance implies, or whether the dilutive equity offering pressures per-share metrics enough to sustain bearish sentiment. A third consecutive earnings miss would challenge Burry's conviction at current levels; a beat paired with commentary on buyback execution pace could be the catalyst that begins closing the gap to the $45.84 fair value estimate.

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