I don’t see Michael Burry doing much publicly. No CNBC appearances, no other interviews, no quarterly letters, no hot takes on X about macro trends. What he does occasionally is post on Substack.Michael Burry is an independent investor who gained fame for predicting the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis and making close to $800 million in profit from it, a story told in the book and movie “The Big Short.”
On Aug. 28, Burry updated his Substack followers on two positions: Veeva Systems (VEEV) and PayPal Holdings (PYPL).
One is a trim after a remarkable run. The other is a risk-management move ahead of a news event that just hit the stock hard. Both moves tell us something about how the man who called the 2008 housing collapse thinks about position management.
Veeva nearly doubled, so Burry did what any disciplined investor would do
Yahoo Finance shows Veeva hit a recent low of $150.39 on June 18, 2026. By the close of August, it was trading at $285. That’s an 89% move in roughly 10 weeks.
In his Substack post, Burry said Veeva stock has nearly doubled over the last few months, making the current price “more expensive than the buy price by quite a bit.”
He trimmed the position to around 3% of his portfolio but kept it. His framing was that he’s “more or less playing with the house’s money” on a position he still likes.
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That is basic position management — not actually a bear call on Veeva. When a stock nearly doubles, your original thesis either proved out or got ahead of itself. In fact, it’s often both simultaneously.
Reducing exposure while staying in the trade lets you participate in further upside without risking the original gain. That’s a simple trade management rule: when a trade pays you, pay yourself.
Why did Veeva nearly double?
The catalyst for the recent run was Veeva’s Q2 fiscal 2027 earnings, reported Aug. 26.
Revenue grew 18% year-over-year (YoY) to $928 million, against a consensus estimate of $905 million.
Adjusted EPS came in at $2.35 versus the $2.22 expected.Sources: Veeva Q2 Fiscal 2027 Results and The Motley Fool data
The beat was clean across every metric.
In fact, CEO Peter Gassner gave investors the line they needed. “AI is opening up the next big chapter for Veeva and life sciences.”
You might think that’s just a tagline. Vault CRM now has over 180 live customers, including five top-20 biopharmas, and Veeva Falcon — the company’s AI platform — secured five early adopters with initial go-lives expected this year, according to a Veeva statement.
The dominant narrative that AI would hollow out enterprise software hasn’t played out at Veeva. Revenue is accelerating. Margins held. For Q3 fiscal 2027, management guided revenue of $932-$935 million and adjusted EPS of $2.33-$2.34, according to the same Veeva statement. Another step forward.
VEEV shares ended August at $285.69 and up 27.98% year-to-date, according to Yahoo Finance. One-month return is at 40%.
The PayPal move was about managing a known risk, and it just paid off
A consortium of Advent and Stripe had been pursuing PayPal (PYPL) in a deal that would have valued the company at $53 billion. In fact, that would be one of the biggest leveraged buyouts ever attempted, according to Bloomberg’s reporting.
The takeover interest, combined with a solid Q2 earnings beat, helped PayPal shares jump more than 40% this quarter.
Burry reduced his position before the news broke, noting in his Substack post that he was “balancing risks of just this type.” He also told followers he would add back if the stock falls to the mid-$40s.
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On Aug. 28, Bloomberg reported that Advent and Stripe had abandoned the pursuit entirely. PayPal shares dropped as much as 14.4% at the open (its steepest single-day decline since February).
Burry’s trim looks prescient because he sized the risk correctly. When a stock is partially supported by acquisition speculation, reducing exposure ahead of that uncertainty is sound portfolio hygiene.
Advent International and payment processor Stripe have officially abandoned their $53 billion takeover bid for PayPal Holdings.Marcin Golba/NurPhoto via Getty Images
What happens to PayPal next?
The bigger issue for PayPal is what happens next without the deal as a floor. Analysts at Mizuho noted that investor focus would likely shift back to PayPal’s slowing fundamentals and growth challenges.
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Sanjay Sakhrani said the bid “had been a source of support” for shares and its absence would cause weakness, according to Stocktwits.
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The company replaced CEO Alex Chriss earlier this year with Enrique Lores, who took over in March and has pledged to set specific financial targets and restructure how the company reports earnings. Stripe has separately been moving deeper into AI infrastructure, agreeing to acquire OpenRouter in Aug. 2026.
PYPL shares are down 9.22% year-to-date and 24.32% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance. Without the deal premium propping up sentiment, the stock’s performance relative to the market becomes harder to justify on fundamentals alone.
I think Burry’s mid-$40s-level mention gives us a sense of where he thinks PayPal’s intrinsic value lies.
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