Princeton’s 3.9% Return Lapped by Ivy League Peers

Princeton University’s endowment reported a 3.9% investment return for the fiscal year that ended June 30 to raise its asset value to $34.1 billion. The performance puts the institution’s investment performance last among the seven Ivy League schools that have reported their annual investment returns for last year—and by a wide margin.

Five of the other seven Ivy League schools’ endowments—Columbia (11.5%), Brown (11.3%), Harvard (9.6%), Dartmouth (8.4%) and Cornell (8.7%)—reported investment returns more than twice that of Princeton’s. The University of Pennsylvania’s portfolio returned 7.1%, which beat Princeton by 320 basis points. Yale is the only Ivy League institution that has not yet announced its 2024 returns.

In fiscal 2023, the Princeton endowment’s return of negative 1.7% ranked last among Ivy League institutions and 59th out of 62 endowments with at least $1 billion in assets under management tracked by NEPC LLC.

Despite the underperformance, Princeton reported 10- and 20-year annualized returns of 9.2% and 9.9%, respectively. The 10-year returns ranked third among the Ivies, behind Brown and Dartmouth, which reported returns of 10.8% and 9.4%, respectively, over the same time period.

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Although the Princeton University Investment Co., which manages the endowment’s portfolio, did not provide investment returns by asset class or asset allocation, the target asset allocation is 30% private equity, 24% independent return, 18% real assets, 12% developed markets, 8% emerging markets and 8% fixed income and cash.

PRINCO also reported endowment distributions of $1.7 billion for the fiscal year. According to its announcement, the endowment has contributed $19.8 billion to Princeton’s operations over the past 20 years.