Stanford University reported that its endowment’s investment portfolio lost 4.2% net of all costs and fees for the year ending June 30. As a result of the loss, as the asset value of the merged pool, the endowment’s main investment vehicle, declined to $40.1 billion from $41.9 billion a year earlier when the portfolio returned 40.1%.
The university said that despite the loss, its investment portfolio outperformed the median 6.3% loss for US college and university endowments for the year, according to Cambridge Associates. It also said that a typical passive portfolio comprised of 70% global stocks and 30% high-quality U.S. bonds lost 14.6% over the same period.
“Diversification and disciplined portfolio management helped preserve value relative to equity and credit markets, which sharply corrected following their very material rise during the previous year,” Stanford Management Company Chief Executive Officer Robert Wallace said in a statement. “It seems prudent to expect continued financial market volatility amid economic uncertainty and an altered interest rate environment.”
The endowment, which includes more than 7,700 funds, reported five-, 10-, and 20-year net annualized returns of 10.9%, 10.2%, and 10.0%, respectively, compared with the median college and university endowment return of 8.4%, 8.1%, and 7.4%, respectively, over the same time periods.
The asset allocation of the merged pool as of July 1 was 37% in private equity, 18% in absolute return, 17% in international equity, 11% in real assets, 9% in fixed income and cash, and 8% in domestic equity.
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Tags: Cambridge Associates, COVID, Endowment, fiscal 2022, merged pool, Robert Wallace, Stanford Management Company, Stanford University