GEN Restaurant Group Inc Sees a 13% Surge in Stock Price Tied to Michael Burry's Investments

GEN Restaurant Group Inc Surges 13%: Michael Burry's Investment Success

Originally made famous by correctly predicting the 2008 crash and executing what has become known as “The Big Short,” the prominent investor Michael Burry has remained active in the stock market in recent years.

While his name became somewhat more controversial in recent times due to stock picks and strategies viewed as odd – such as his $4.3 million bet on Alibaba – or simply wrong – like his 2023 bet against the semiconductor industry – Burry’s portfolio still holds many hidden gems and interesting finds.

March 2024 brought one of these smaller positions – GEN Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ: GENK) – into the focus as the company experienced a major surge which, at one point, saw it rise approximately 50% on the weekly chart.

One of the key reasons for the growth of the GEN Restaurant Group – a company that runs a chain of Korean barbecue all-you-can-eat restaurants in the U.S. – was a fairly strong earnings report, published on March 6, which demonstrated that while the firm missed earnings per share (EPS) forecasts, its revenue was significantly stronger than expected.

In weeks following the publication, GENK continued rising and even closed 11.03% in the green at $10.77 on the latest full trading day – Thursday, March 21 – and is, at press time, up another 2.04% in the extended session.

The company is also doing well on the weekly chart as it is up 41.71% in the time frame. In the last 30 days, the stock is also in the green by 20.03% and has been doing well since the start of 2024 as it logged a 37.90% growth.

GENK shares are, however, notably weaker in the longer timeframes and are down 29.79% in a year, and are 36.61% below their initial public offering (IPO) price.

How much did Michael Burry make by investing in GENK?

While it is difficult to tell exactly when Burry acquired his 154,142 GENK shares – the 13-f filling reveals only that the investment was made in the final quarter of 2023 – the restaurant stock rallied enough that he is most likely in the green on the purchase.

Indeed, assuming that “The Big Short” investor picked up the stock near its Q4, 2023 bottom – near $7 per share – the investment would have risen from $1.07 million to $1.66 million making Burry approximately $600,000.