NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. university endowments produced positive investment returns in the last school year as they shifted more money into a rising stock market, according to a survey released Wednesdayby the Commonfund Institute.
Commonfund, a Wilton, Conn., investment firm that caters to nonprofit institutions, said 122 university endowments polled via the Internet produced an average investment return of 2.9 percent in the fiscal year ended June 30.
By comparison, institutions polled in last year’s survey had an investment loss of 5.4 percent for fiscal 2002, on average.
“The endowments of U.S. educational institutions have turned the corner” in terms of investment returns, said Commonfund Executive Director John Griswold.
Rising stock prices prompted many endowments to move money out of hedge funds and other alternative investments that helped them weather the bear market and back into domestic equities.
The average respondent’s exposure to U.S. stocks rose modestly to 50 percent from 47 percent of total assets, while allocations to alternative investments fell to 11 percent from 15 percent, on average.
The percentage of assets endowments allocated to fixed income and foreign stocks were essentially unchanged on the year at 29 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
More than half of respondents changed their allocations in the past year, compared with just under a third in the previous years.
