University of Utah's $1.3 billion endowment pool returned -7.2% for the fiscal year ended June 30.
The return fell below the target benchmark return of -4.6% for the period, according to a fiscal year-end summary on the Salt Lake City-based university's website.
For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the endowment pool returned an annualized 6.6%, 6% and 6.3%, respectively, compared to the respective benchmarks of 6.3%, 6.5% and 7.1%.
For the most recent fiscal year, private real assets and private equity were the top-performing asset classes in the endowment pool, with returns of 15.9% and 11.2%, respectively, for the year ended June 30. Those were followed by fixed income, which returned -1.5%; diversifying strategies, -2.1%; venture capital, -4.3%; and global equity, -20.9%.
The summary did not say whether the returns were gross or net of fees.
Overall, the negative return for the endowment pool reflected a challenging market environment for the period, particularly for 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.
The endowment's pool was below the median return of -4.2% among the 46 university endowments whose returns for the fiscal year ended June 30 have been tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Thursday. While the summary on the university's website did not provide a reason for the underperformance, its combined allocation of 54% to public equities and fixed income was likely a contributing factor.
As of June 30, the endowment pool's actual allocation was 36% global equities, 18% global fixed income, 12% diversifying strategies, 10% private real assets, 9% cash investments, 8% venture capital and 7% private equity.
