Virginia Tech endowment returns -5% for fiscal year

Virginia Tech Foundation's $1.2 billion consolidated endowment fund returned -5% for the fiscal year ended June 30, according to the Blacksburg, Va.-based foundation's annual report.

The return of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University's fund fell below its policy benchmark return of 1.8%.

For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the endowment fund returned an annualized 1.7%, 3.6% and 7.3%, respectively, below the respective benchmarks of 5.4%, 5.6% and 7.6%.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019, the endowment returned 3.4%, below its policy benchmark return of 7%.

Whether the returns were gross or net of fees was not available.

Returns by asset class were not disclosed, but the annual report notes the foundation "uses a value-based approach to manage the fund, as value investing has enjoyed a historical dominance over growth-style investing."

"Over the past two years, however, the exuberance of the technology sector has severely challenged value investing, and the pandemic has further heightened the outperformance of many growth stocks," the annual report said.

As of June 30, the actual allocation was 61.5% global equities, 31.3% global fixed income and 7.2% global real assets.

Foundation officials could not be immediately reached for further information.