Duke University's $12.1 billion endowment returned -1.5% for the fiscal year ended June 30.
DUMAC, Durham, N.C., which manages the endowment and other long-term investment assets, also reported the endowment returned an annualized 11.3% for the 10 years ended June 30.
Benchmark information and asset class returns were not provided in a report on the endowment's website.
The endowment had returned a net 55.9% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, one of the highest returns for endowments with at least $1 billion.
The returns for the most recent fiscal year reflected a challenging environment in public equities and fixed income. For the year ended June 30, the Russell 3000 index and Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond index returned -13.9% and -10.3%, respectively, in sharp contrast to returns of 44.2% and 4.6% for the year ended June 30, 2021.
Duke's endowment return did beat the median return of -3.1% among the 17 university endowments whose returns for the year ended June 30 have been tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Monday.
Actual allocation information as of June 30 was not provided. The endowment's long-term target allocation is 48% equity (both public and private), 15% credit (corporate bonds, bank debt, asset-backed securities and sovereign debt), 13% residual (absolute return), 9% each commodities and real estate, 4% rates (public fixed income) and 2% inflation-linked securities.
University spokesman Steve Hartsoe could not be immediately reached for further information.
