Burford Capital
BUR on NYSE. Burford sells capital to businesses and law firms for legal disputes. Market value $780m.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Some use the latest annual report instead, as marked. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
Should I look at this?
Not a fit for our list right now
Why it could be worth it
See Financial services stocks that passed both tests
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
Yearly profit per dollar of owners' money: 3 cents. Above 10 is good.
What you pay for each dollar of net assets: $0.97.
Profit per $100 you pay: $-212.17.
Quality score: 64 of 100. Price score: 50 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$3.62 a share, 3% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $3.51 to $11.70.
Dividend: 3.4% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $217m | $319m | $1.1bn | $546m | $413m |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.22bn | 0.22bn | 0.22bn | 0.22bn | 0.22bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positiveDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
- Accounting checksDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
- DebtDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 4.7% a year
- Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $111 million last quarter, down 42% on a year ago.
- Profit: $2 million, down 98% on a year ago.
- Over the past 12 months it spent $185 million more cash than it brought in. A year earlier it had $331 million spare.
- About the same number of shares as a year ago.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| December 2023 | Not reported |
| December 2024 | Not reported |
| March 2025 | $119m |
| June 2025 | $191m |
| September 2025 | $70m |
| December 2025 | $33m |
| March 2026 | -$1.7bn |
| June 2026 | $111m |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| December 2023 | Not reported |
| December 2024 | Not reported |
| March 2025 | $31m |
| June 2025 | $88m |
| September 2025 | -$19m |
| December 2025 | -$37m |
| March 2026 | -$1.6bn |
| June 2026 | $2m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 26 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 5 November 2026
Who owns it
6 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 6 last quarter. 234 funds in all.
- Royce & AssociatesChuck Royce
- Value
- $717,500
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orbis Investment ManagementOrbis team (Allan Gray lineage) | $60m | 0.2% | Added |
| Barrow HanleyBarrow Hanley team | $18m | <0.1% | Added |
| Cooke & BielerCooke & Bieler partners | $16m | 0.2% | Cut |
| Greenhaven Road CapitalScott Miller | $12m | 8.1% | Added |
| Royce & AssociatesChuck Royce | $717,500 | <0.1% | |
| Horizon KineticsMurray Stahl | $279,259 | <0.1% | Added |
Largest holders overall
- Bank of Montreal /can$4.9bnCut
- Ameriprise Financial$76mAdded
- BlackRock$71mAdded
- Orbis Investment Management$60mAdded
- Pictet North America Advisors SA$31m
- AQR Capital Management$26mAdded
- Invesco$20mCut
- M&G$18mAdded
- Barrow Hanley$18mAdded
- Cooke & Bieler$16mCut
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
4 investors own more than 5%.
- ORBIS INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LTDPassive investorat least 9.2%+0.7 pts(filed with 1 related holder)Since 30 June 2026
- Ameriprise Financial, Inc.Passive investorat least 8.4%+2.8 pts(filed with 1 related holder)Since 30 June 2026
- Conifer Management, L.L.C.Passive investor5.6%Since 31 December 2025
- BlackRock, Inc.Passive investor5.2%+0.2 ptsSince 30 September 2025
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
ORBIS INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LTD Passive investor | at least 9.2%+0.7 pts (filed with 1 related holder) | 30 June 2026 | |
Ameriprise Financial, Inc. Passive investor | at least 8.4%+2.8 pts (filed with 1 related holder) | 30 June 2026 | |
Conifer Management, L.L.C. Passive investor | 5.6% | 31 December 2025 | |
BlackRock, Inc. Passive investor | 5.2%+0.2 pts | 30 September 2025 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
No insider bought or sold on the open market in the last 12 months.
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 26 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 6 Aug 2026 and 8 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.