University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind., returned -0.3% on its endowment investments for the fiscal year ended June 30.
The endowment had $10.4 billion in assets as of June 30, down from $10.5 billion a year earlier.
Its custom benchmark return for the fiscal year was -1.4%, said Scott Malpass, chief investment officer, in an e-mail.
The endowment returned 8.7% in the previous fiscal year.
As of June 30, endowment investments returned 8% over 10 years and 11.2% for 20 years, vs. their custom benchmark return of 4.2% and 6.9%, respectively. All returns are annualized.
Mr. Malpass attributed the latest fiscal-year return to an “extremely volatile year” in global equities, with the MSCI All-Country World index down 4%, the MSCI EAFE index down 10% and the MSCI Emerging Markets index down 12%.
The endowment's highest returns for the latest fiscal year were in private equity, specifically U.S. buyouts, Mr. Malpass said. The university does not disclosure specific asset class returns, he added.
The endowment's target asset allocation is 37.5% public equity, 27.5% private equity, 15% marketable alternatives (event-driven, credit, distressed debt and multistrategy), 12.5% real assets and 7.5% fixed income.
Mr. Malpass said the endowment's actual allocation is close to those targets, and there won't be any major changes to the allocation going forward.
