University of Utah posts 5.9% return for fiscal year

University of Utah's $1.5 billion endowment pool returned 5.9% for the fiscal year ended June 30, beating its target benchmark return of 5.5% for the period, according to a fiscal year-end summary on the Salt Lake City-based university's website.

For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the endowment pool returned an annualized 8.4%, 6% and 6%, respectively, compared with the respective benchmarks of 8.7%, 5.7% and 6.4%.

The endowment pool had returned -7.2% for the fiscal year ended June 30.

The summary did not provide benchmark returns and did not specify whether returns were gross or net of fees.

For the most recent fiscal year, the endowment pool's return fell well above the median return of 4.4% among the 25 college and university endowments whose returns for the period have been tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Oct. 19.

The endowment's top-performing asset class was global equity, which returned 13.3% for the year ended June 30, reflecting a dramatic market recovery for the year ended June 30. For the period, the Russell 3000 index returned 19%, far above its return of -13.9% for the year ended June 30, 2022.

The next top performer among the endowment pool's asset classes for the fiscal year ended June 30 was diversifying strategies, which returned 9.1%; followed by private real assets, at 4.7%; alternative credit, 4.5%; private equity, 2.9%; fixed income, -1%; and venture capital, -5.5%.

As of June 30, the endowment pool's actual allocation was 28% global equity, 20% global fixed income, 17% diversifying strategies, 13% private equity, 9% each cash investments and private real assets and 4% private credit.