‘Big Short’ investor Michael Burry piled into energy and shipping stocks last quarter. A top strategist explains why.

• Michael Burry snapped up a bunch of energy and shipping stocks in the second quarter.
• The “Big Short” investor was likely drawn to their cheapness and upside potential, one analyst said.
• Burry also made a “very large,” leveraged bet against the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100, the analyst noted.

Michael Burry didn’t just bet against the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 last quarter, he also loaded up on energy and shipping stocks. Those purchases make perfect sense for the investor of “The Big Short” fame, one leading analyst says.

Burry’s Scion Asset Management bought shares of Vital Energy, Precision Drilling, Costamare, Safe Bulkers, and six other companies in the oil-and-gas and shipping industries, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed this week. The 10 positions, out of 33 total holdings, were worth a combined $29 million at the end of June — more than a quarter of the entire value of Scion’s portfolio, excluding options.