Vanderbilt University's endowment returned a net -4.4% for the fiscal year ended June 30, according to a financial report on the Nashville, Tenn.-based university's website.
The report did not provide benchmark information, return information for asset classes or long-term returns.
The $10.2 billion endowment had returned a net 57.1% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021.
During the most recent fiscal year, the value of the endowment decreased 6.6% from June 30, 2021. The drop in the endowment value beyond the loss from investment returns was attributed to "the net impact of new endowment gifts, additions to institutional endowments (quasi-endowments), costs for managing the endowment including internal management costs and endowment excise tax of $22 million, and the distribution of endowment funds to support university operations," according to the report.
The negative return for the most recent fiscal year reflected a challenging market environment in the year ended June 30, particularly within 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 Vanderbilt endowment's return fell just below the median of -4.2% among the 34 university endowments whose returns for the year ended June 30 that have been tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Oct. 28.
As of June 30, the endowment's actual allocation was 36% private capital, 24% hedged strategies, 18% global equities, 7% fixed income, 6% natural resources, 5% cash and cash equivalents, and 2% each commodities and real estate.
