As of March 31, the Lilly Endowment Inc. held 135,670,804 shares of Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) common stock. Lilly's stock has increased more than 40% over the past year, bolstering the foundation's assets to an estimated $8 billion, up from $5 billion at the end of 2010. Eli Lilly stock, which trades around $57, is still well below the August 2000 all-time high of more than $100.
At the end of 1993, the earliest information available, the foundation held 190,861,368 shares after adjusting for two 2-1 stock splits. The foundation steadily reduced its exposure to Eli Lilly stock until 2008. The foundation has held the same amount of shares for more than four years.
Over the 25 years ended Dec. 31, 2012, the foundation has benefited from market-like returns in Lilly stock, which returned 9.7% annually. That was in line with the annual 9.83% return of the Russell 3000 over the same period. The past 10 years have been more of a struggle; the stock's total return was only 1.18% annually compared to the Russell 3000's annual return of 7.63%.
According to the latest 990-PF, the foundation has $389 million in other investments as of Dec. 31, 2011. The investments were: Vanguard Institutional Total Stock Market Index Fund, $262 million; Vanguard Institutional Developed Market Index Fund, $91 million; and Vanguard Institutional Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund, $18 million. The foundation also had $18 million in “art held for investment.”