An Early Look at FY25 Endowment Returns

This week, we’re taking an early look at FY25 endowment performance, as a number of universities have released their results in recent weeks. We’ll continue to update our tracker as additional reports come in, and users can access the latest data on the platform. The table below highlights returns for the institutions that have reported so far:

University of Wisconsin

The University of Wisconsin is leading thus far in FY25, building on strong FY24 performance. Over the past decade, the endowment has delivered annualized returns of 8.2%, in line with the peer median, and its results in recent years have been notably stronger. As a result of this performance, Wisconsin’s endowment has more than doubled over the past 10 years:

CIO Michael Stohler joined WISIMCO in 2021, following six years as a Managing Director of Investments at WashU. Despite Stohler’s pedigree, WISIMCO’s asset allocation looks markedly different than WashU’s. For example, WashU most recently had 58% of its portfolio in private capital, compared to 32% for Wisconsin. Conversely, WISIMCO’s global equity allocation of 53% far outpaces WashU’s at 19%, a tilt that has benefited Wisconsin in recent years.

MIT

Coming in slightly below Wisconsin, MIT reported a 14.8% return for FY25. Because MIT discloses portions of its portfolio, we can gain insight into potential performance drivers. Using OWL’s portfolio analysis tools, we see that several of MIT’s largest public equity managers (CAS, Spruce House, Steadview, and Camelot) hold significant positions in Carvana. For each, Carvana ranks as either the largest or second-largest holding, representing a substantial share of these managers’ disclosed portfolios: CAS (79%), Spruce House (36%), Steadview (17%), and Camelot (68%). Carvana’s stock surged nearly 200% in FY25, contributing meaningfully to returns for these managers, and by extension, MIT. Additionally, Steadview and Spruce House hold sizable positions in Applovin, which rose more than 300% over the same period.

UNC

Another data point worth noting is the performance of UNC’s long/short equity portfolio. As noted in a recent board deck, the endowment’s 11.6% FY25 return was led by exceptional performance in long/short equity, helping the school remain among the top performers over the past few years:

Other News/Events

• In a Combative Year, Strong Equities and Savvy Hedge Fund Selection Drove Harvard’s Returns (includes OWL data)

• University of Chicago endowment PE chief leaves amid financial challenges (includes OWL data)

• Tekne Capital’s Beeneet Kothari Plays the Long Game — and Wins Big on China Tech

• Biopharma’s Remarkable Reversal of Fortune

• Generative AI fails to deliver alpha for hedge funds, says Griffin

• Harvard, Other Top Universities Notch Big Investment Gains

• John Hempton (Bronte Capital) - Bucket Shops, Crypto, and Flash Crashes

• Profile of Josh Kushner and Thrive Capital

• Shinya Deguchi on European Activism

• MIT Reports 14.8% FY25 Return

• Vanderbilt Reports 9.9% FY25 Return

• Harvard Reports 11.9% FY25 Return

• University of California hiring Investment Director - Private Equity

About Old Well Labs

OWL is an intelligence platform built for allocators, by allocators. Leading endowments, foundations, and family offices use the system to find, monitor, and connect with thousands of fund managers globally. OWL's analytics engine has collected over one billion data points from 65 countries. We make it easy for allocators to find and track information about the managers they care about – not just positions but also performance analytics, people data, business information, and details about the manager investments of other allocators.

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This newsletter and the material on the Old Well Labs platform are for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, manager, or strategy. Old Well Labs shall not be liable for any investment gain or loss that may occur from the use of this material. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or used in any publication without express written permission from Old Well Labs.