University of Florida endowment posts net 5.2% fiscal-year return

University of Florida Foundation's $2.3 billion endowment pool returned a net 5.2% for the fiscal year ended June 30.

The Gainesville-based foundation's pool underperformed its 70% MSCI All Country World index and 30% Bloomberg Global Aggregate Bond index benchmark return, which was 11.1% for the fiscal year, according to a performance report on the foundation's website.

For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the endowment pool returned an annualized net 9.5%, 7.8% and 7.4% respectively, above the respective benchmark returns of 5.1%, 5% and 5.6%.

The endowment pool returned a net -6.6% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022.

For the most recent fiscal year, the report said the endowment pool's "significant allocation to private strategies which underperformed public equities in most recent year drove relative performance."

Returns by specific asset class were not provided. While the endowment pool's return fell below its benchmark for the most recent fiscal year, it did outperform the median return of 4.45% among the 42 college and university endowments whose returns have been tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Nov. 16.

As of June 30, the endowment pool's actual allocation was 81.1% growth (public equities, hedged strategies and private equity), 10% diversifying (hedged strategies) and 8.9% liquidity (fixed income and cash).

The target allocation is 85% growth and 7.5% each diversifying and liquidity.