Stanford endowment 2008

[Bourne]

<p>

Another way that the Commonfund analyzes the data is by looking at characteristics of top performing endowments — grouping together top decile and top quartile performers. One characteristic of these groups is that they were large to start with. But the top performers also invest in different ways.</p>

<p>Top decile endowments had about 52 percent of their investments in “alternative” allocations — meaning hedge funds, venture funds and so forth — instead of the more traditional mix of stocks and bonds. For top quartile funds, the alternative percentage was 47 percent. For everyone in the study, the percentage was 42 percent. Leading endowments tended to keep only small percentages of their funds in cash, and to be reducing investments in energy and natural resources.</p>

<p>Over the past two years, there has been a shift — across most endowment sizes — away from domestic equities and fixed-income investments and toward international equities and alternative investments.</p>

<p>Asset Allocations of College Endowments, 2005-7</p>

<p>Asset class
2005
2006
2007</p>

<p>Domestic equities
28%
26%
23%</p>

<p>Fixed income
16%
13%
12%</p>

<p>International equities
18%
20%
20%</p>

<p>Alternative strategies
35%
39%
42%</p>

<p>Short-term securities and cash
3%
2%
3%

</p>

<p>Does the 17.3 number exclude Natural Resources?</p>

<p>I wonder how different the composites are for the top universities.</p>