Biglari Holdings Reveals Sonic (SONC) Position

Sardar Biglari's investment firm Biglari Holdings (BH) has disclosed a new position in Sonic Corp (SONC). Per a 13G filed with the SEC, Biglari Holdings now shows a 5.9% stake in the Sonic restaurant chain with 3,623,668 shares due to portfolio activity on July 28th. Biglari has extensive experience in the fast food industry because Biglari Holdings is actually the new holding company name for Steak 'N Shake.

Back on June 28th, 2010 BH also disclosed a 6.0% ownership stake in Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (RRGB) with 941,189 shares. Burgers apparently, are Biglari's specialty. And as a side note, we also highlighted how Patrick McCoarmack's hedge fund Tiger Consumer Management took a stake in Red Robin as well.

Earlier in the year, many pondered whether Steak 'N Shake was the next Berkshire Hathaway. Sardar Biglari has long been an admirer of Warren Buffett's and appears to be trying to follow in his footsteps. In fact, Biglari had taken a similar path as Sears Holdings chairman Eddie Lampert as he gained control of the company and inserted himself at the head of the company. Biglari then essentially merged his hedge fund (The Lion Fund) into Steak 'N Shake and created Biglari Holdings, coincidentally (or not) the same initials as Berkshire Hathaway.

Further evidencing his experience in the fast food business, Steak 'N Shake acquired Western Sizzlin under Biglari's watch. Since then, Biglari has transformed the fast food chain into a Berkshire Hathaway-esque holding company. He has even performed a 1-for-20 reverse stock split in order to garner a higher stock price in an effort to thwart off short-term traders. The comparisons go on and on, but there was one recent maneuver that was distinctly non-Buffettesque. Many notable financial blogs have highlighted Biglari's pay package and have blasted him for it.

While the manager has attempted to buy an insurance company to provide the necessary float to make investments, he has yet to fully succeed. We'll continue to monitor the developments regarding this potential mini-Buffett in the making. He certainly has a long way to go.

For more on the real Warren Buffett, be sure to head to Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio activity, as well as Warren Buffett's recommended reading list.

Patrick McCormack's Hedge Fund Tiger Consumer Starts New Position

Patrick McCormack's hedge fund Tiger Consumer Management just filed an a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (RRGB). The filing was made due to activity on May 21st, 2010 and the hedge fund now shows a 5.16% ownership stake in RRGB with 806,534 shares. This is a brand new position for Tiger Consumer as they did not show a position as of March 31st per their last 13F filing.

This is the first time we've covered Pat McCormack's hedge fund and so some brief background: Tiger Consumer is one of the many hedge funds seeded by Julian Robertson, the founder of Tiger Management. McCormack's fund offices at the same Park Avenue address that Robertson's legendary firm once called home. As such, Tiger Consumer is one of the 'Tiger Seed' funds out there and as of March 31st, 2010 reported $919 million in assets. For those interested, you can view the whole Tiger Family Tree here. And obviously, as his hedge fund's name implies, McCormack's focus is on the consumer sector. We're starting to cover more of the Tiger Seed funds in addition to our longstanding coverage of Chase Coleman's Tiger Global.

Taken from Google Finance, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers is "together with its subsidiaries, is a casual dining restaurant chain focused on serving burgers. As of December 27, 2009, Red Robin had 21 franchisees, which were operating 133 restaurants in 21 states and 2 Canadian provinces, and it had eight exclusive franchise area development arrangements with those franchisees."

For more of the latest investment activity from prominent managers, head to our hedge fund portfolio tracking series that is updated daily.