Iowa State University notches net return of 5.5% for fiscal year

Iowa State University Foundation's $1.4 billion long-term portfolio returned a net return of 5.5% for the fiscal year ended June 30, beating its benchmark.

The Ames-based foundation's portfolio of endowment assets posted a return above its benchmark return of 4.9% for the period, according to an investment report on its website.

For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the long-term portfolio returned an annualized net 13.9%, 9.5% and 8.3%, respectively, above the respective benchmarks of 11.2%, 7.2% and 6.8%.

The long-term portfolio had returned a net 0.4% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022.

The report cited a resilient economy that remained strong despite the Federal Reserve raising interest rates seven times during the year ended June 30, as well as economic and energy issues in Europe and a slowdown in China.

For the year ended June 30, the Russell 3000 index and Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond index returned 19% and -0.2%, respectively, well above their respective returns of -13.9% and -10.3% for the year ended June 30, 2022.

While the investment report did not provide specific returns by asset class, it said that developed markets equities had positive returns during the fiscal year, while emerging markets, fixed income, private markets and commodities underperformed during the period.

As of June 30, the long-term pool's actual allocation was 47% public equities, 24% private equity, 11% diversifying equities, 10% fixed income and 8% real assets.

The public equities component includes global equities (22% of the overall portfolio), domestic equities (20%) and emerging markets equities (5%).