University of Missouri reports net 3.8% return for fiscal year

The University of Missouri System's $2.2 billion endowment pool returned a net 3.8% for the fiscal year ended June 30, below the benchmark return of 4.4%.

For the three-year period, the Columbia, Mo.-based university's endowment pool returned an annualized net 10.1%, above the benchmark return of 8.5%, according to a performance report included with materials for the system's upcoming Sept. 7 board of curators meeting.

For the five, seven and 10 years ended June 30, the endowment returned an annualized net 7.4%, 8.5% and 7.7%, respectively, above the respective benchmarks of 7%, 7.8% and 7.4%.

The endowment pool returned a net -0.8% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022. "As expected, we underperformed peers in (fiscal 2023) as markets favored risky assets," the system said in the report.

The underperformance in fiscal 2023 was attributed to "a slight underweight to public equities throughout most of the year; and within public equities, an overweight to emerging markets which underperformed relative to developed markets," the report noted.

For the most recent fiscal year, the top performer was public equity, which returned a net 13% (below its benchmark of 16.5%), followed by private debt with a net return of 7.6% (well above benchmark of 2.5%), inflation-linked bonds at a net 4% (-0.9%), cash and other at a net 3.7% (3.6%) and U.S. Treasuries at a net 2% (-1%).

Assets in the loss column comprised risk balanced assets at a net -0.4% (-0.4%), real estate at net -0.8% (-3.9%), private equity at a net -4.7% (-6.9%) and commodities at a net -7.9% (-9.6%).

As of June 30, the endowment pool's actual allocation was 37.2% public equities, 13% risk balanced assets, 12.6% private equity, 10% inflation-linked bonds, 9% U.S. Treasuries, 8.3% real estate, 5.5% private debt, 2.7% commodities and 1.7% cash/other.